Ye Bai He

Ye Bai He, wild lily, is the dried fleshy bulb scales of wild Lilium species, principally Lilium brownii F.E.Br. ex Miellez var. viridulum Baker, L. lancifolium Thunb., or L. pumilum DC. (Liliaceae), as distinguished from cultivated Bai He of commerce. The plants are erect perennials 60 to 120 cm tall arising from scaly white to yellowish bulbs about 3 to 5 cm across, with alternate or scattered linear to lanceolate leaves and showy nodding white to orange trumpet-shaped flowers. The bulb scales are detached, briefly blanched, and sun-dried, becoming translucent ivory crescent-shaped pieces with a slightly sweet mucilaginous taste. In traditional Chinese medicine the bulb is sweet and slightly cold, entering the Heart and Lung channels; it moistens the lung, stops chronic cough, clears heat from the heart, and calms the spirit, used for dry cough, hemoptysis, insomnia, palpitations, and lily-disease residual fevers.