Clearing heat is an important therapy for various heat syndromes.

Individuals with these syndromes usually present with fever, thirst, prefer cold drinks, constipation, scanty and yellowish urine, tongue covered by yellow coating. In external medicine, it is used especially for yang syndromes; lesions that show obvious redness, heat, pustules, running sores or deep-rooted ulcers, for example, carbuncles, erysipelas, multiple abscesses, osteomyelitis, contact dermatitis, impetigo, lupus erythematosus, psoriasis and large-scale burns. TCM holds that heat attacked can be in various degree and accumulate in different parts of the body, e.g. heart, lungs, bones, qi or blood. By choosing herbs with cold or cool properties, physicians can target areas where heat or fire is located. Generally, the remedies aim at purging fire, clearing blood heat, clearing toxic heat, and clearing virtual fire. 

• Clearing heat and purging fire: golden thread rhizome, baical skullcap root, gardenia fruit and gypsum. The remedies are indicated for severe wound infections with yang syndromes. 
  
  
• Clearing heat and detoxifying: dandelion, Tokyo violet herb, honeysuckle flower and wild chrysanthemum. The remedies are indicated for skin infections with yang syndromes. Sample Prescription: Five Flavors Drink to Expel Toxins (wu wei xiao du yin). In the prescription, all ingredients have a cold property, which can forcefully clear toxic heat and arrest infections. It is suitable for many kinds of infection.
  
  
• Clearing nutrient qi and cooling blood: buffalo horn, fresh rehmannia root, peony root bark, red peony root and arnebia root. The remedies are indicated for skin infections with bright red and hot rashes. A sample prescription: Clear Nutritive Level Decoction (qing ying tang)

• Clearing virtual fire: rehmannia root, figwort root, dwarf lily-turf tuber, tortoise shell glue and anemarrhena rhizome. The remedies are indicated for yin vacuity with internal heat in conditions such as chronic infections, SLE, and septicemia. A sample prescription: Six-ingredient Rehmannia Pill (liu wei di huang wan)