Chinese Medicinal Herbs for Invigorating the Blood and Removing Blood Stasis
Chinese medicinal herbs with the main action of faciliating blood flow and removing blood stasis are called medicinal herbs for invigorating the blood and removing blood stasis, in which those with strong power of promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis are also called drastic medicinal herbs for removing blood stasis.

They are mostly pungent and bitter in flavor and mainly attributive to the liver and heart meridians and xuefen.They can facilitate blood flow and remove blood stasis so as to achieve the therapeutic effects of stimulating the menstrual flow, treating arthralgia and trauma and relieving swelling and pain. They are indicated for unsmooth blood flow and blood stasis manifested as fixed pain or numbness; for internal or external lumps, bleeding with darkish blood and purple-dark masses and ecchymosis on the skin and tongue.
 
There are various causes of forming blood stasis, therefore the causes should be found out by differentiation of syndromes and proper combination of medicinal herbs worked out when they are used. For example, if blood stasis is caused by cold obstruction and qi stagnation, the medicinal herbs warming the interior and dissipating cold should be combined; if by heat invading yingfen and xuefen and blood stasis in the interior, those clearing away heat and cooling the blood should be combined; if by obstructive pain due to wind-dampness,  wind-dampness eliminating ones should be combined; if by trauma, those that can promote qi circulation and dredge collaterals should be combined; if by abdominal mass, those that resolve phlegm; soften hardness and disperse stagnation should be used together; if the blood stasis syndrome is accompanied by insufficiency of healthy qi, those that supplement qi should be used together.

Since qi and blood are closely related to each other, i.e. free flow of qi leads to free flow of the blood and stagnation of qi results in blood stasis and vice versa, they are usually used in combination with qi regulating medicinal herbs so as to enhance the action of invigorating the blood and removing stagnation. 
They are not suitable for excessive menstruation and used with great caution or contraindicated in pregnant women.