Maitong can nourish yin, produce fluids and moisten the lungs.
Maitong is the dried tuberous root of Maitong, family Liliaceae, which is sweet, slightly bitter, slightly cold in nature, and belongs to the lung, stomach and heart meridians. It has the efficacy of nourishing yin, generating fluids, moistening the lung and clearing the heart.
Maitong can be used for the treatment of lung dry cough, Yin deficiency consumptive cough, paralysis of the throat (pharyngeal redness, swelling and pain, or dryness, foreign body sensation, or pharyngeal itching discomfort, dysphagia), sore throat, fluid injury and thirst, internal heat and thirst (internal fever accompanied by more food, more drinking, more urine and other symptoms), heartburn and insomnia, intestinal dryness and constipation.
Ophiopogon is cold in nature, so it is not recommended for those who have loose stools in spleen deficiency, phlegm in lungs and stomach (pathological product of water metabolism disorders), dampness and coughing in the beginning of wind-cold sensation.