Phlegm Resolving, Antitussive and Antiasthmatic Chinese Medicinal Herbs
Any Chinese medicinal herb that helps to dissolve and excrete phlegm out of the lung and takes treatment of phlegm-syndnome as its main action is considered as phlegm resolving Chinese medicinal herbs while any Chinese medicinal herb with the main actions of relieving cough and asthma is called antitussive and antiasthmatic Chinese medicinal herbs. Phlegm resolving herbs concurrently have the action of arresting cough and stopping asthma, and antitussive and antiasthmatic herbs can also concurrently have the effect of dissolving phlegm, so these two kinds of medicinal herbs fall into one chapter, known as phlegm resolving, antitussive and antiasthmatic Chinese medicinal herbs.  Phlegm resolving Chinese medicinal herbs are mainly used for cough due to excessive phlegm or asthma due to phlegm-retention, unsmooth coughing sputum, etc.Antitussive and antiasthmatic Chinese medicinal herbs are mainly indicated for cough and asthma caused by internal injury and external affection. Syndromes such as epilepsy, infantile convulsion, goiter, scrofula, yin furuncle and suppurative tissue disease are closely related to phlegm in pathogenesis； therefore, they are also treated by phlegm resolving Chinese medicinal herbs.

External affection and internal damage can all cause cough and excessive sputum, so clinically, besides choosing these kinds of medicinal herbs according to each property of them, one must combine them appropriately with each other according to the pathogenic factors, signs and symptoms. For example, for cough or asthma accompained by exterior syndrome, diaphoretic Chinese medicinal herbs must be combined; for that with internal heat, heat clearing herbs must be combined; for that with internal cold, the interior warming Chinese herbs must be combined; and for that due to asthenia of viscera, tonics must be combined. Besides, for epilepsy and infantile convulsion, Chinese medicinal herbs for calming the mind and liver should be combined; for goiter and scrofula, Chinese medicinal herbs for softening hardness and dispersing lumps should be combined; for yin furuncle and suppurative tissue disease, Chinese medicinal herbs for eliminating cold to remove stagnation should be combined. 

Expectorants with violent and stimulative property are not suitable for cough accompanied by hemoptysis, otherwise bleeding can be induced. Cough at the early stage of measles is usually treated with the medicinal herbs with the main actions of clearing away lung-heat and opening inhibited lung-qi but is not suitably arrested with the medicinal herbs with warm and astringent property so as to avoid assisting heat or affecting smooth eruptions of measles.