Shellac is a kind of traditional Chinese medicine, commonly found in Sichuan Shellac, Zhejiang Shellac and Earth Shellac; take Sichuan Shellac as an example, the Chinese Pharmacopoeia recommends that Sichuan Shellac be decocted with water or powdered, and the specific method of taking it needs to comply with the doctor’s instructions, and there is no such thing as the best.
It is bitter and sweet in taste, slightly cold in nature, and belongs to the lung and heart meridians. It has the efficacy of clearing away heat and resolving phlegm, moistening the lungs and relieving cough, dispersing knots and eliminating carbuncles. It can be used in the treatment of lung-heat and dry coughs, dry coughs with little phlegm, coughs with deficiency of yin and coughs with labor, phlegm with blood in it, scrofula (mainly refers to lymph node tuberculosis of the neck), and mammary carbuncles. It usually needs to be properly combined and taken in order to achieve a better therapeutic effect.
It should not be used together with Chuanwu, Prepared Chuanwu, Caowu, Prepared Caowu, Radix et Rhizoma Gastrodiae, and should not be taken by people with cold spleen and stomach, cold phlegm, or damp phlegm.
If there is a need for medication, it should be used under the guidance of a doctor’s diagnosis, and should not be used blindly on its own to avoid adverse consequences.