This "root" on the roadside is really good at quenching thirst

When I was very young, my father was assigned by his unit to work at the Shuanghekou agency store in Longwang Brigade, which was more than 10 li away from Panlong Town (called a district at the time). My father carried my brother and me in a basket with one on each end and took us there. Shuanghekou countryside is a picturesque place with green hills and clear waters. I remember there were several places with reed bamboo growing on the hills and along the roadsides. When I was a child, if anyone in our family had a sore throat, my mother would pick a few pieces of Phragmites australis (the young leaves of the core of Phragmites australis) and boil them into water to drink, saying that it could reduce internal heat, and sometimes it really worked. Every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival, every family would make glutinous rice cakes. At that time, we would go to the mountain to cut two pieces of reed and use them as sticks to make glutinous rice cakes.

It was only after I studied Chinese medicine that I truly understood the functions of Phragmites australis root. Reed root can clear away heat, produce body fluid, relieve thirst, and promote urination, and is often used in treating febrile diseases. The most famous prescriptions such as Sangju Yin and Yinqiao San both contain reed root.

I remember that in the 1990s, not long after I was transferred to the county hospital, a young man named Li, who was suffering from cough and sore throat, was brought to me by his mother-in-law to see a doctor. His mother-in-law said that her grandson had had a cold and cough for a few days. Director Zhou of our Traditional Chinese Medicine Department examined him but found no effect. She showed me Director Zhou's prescription (because they like to buy medicine at pharmacies outside). Director Zhou’s prescription is Yinqiao Powder plus 30 grams of Isatis Root. I think that although the teenager has sore throat, he is mainly suffering from cough and thirst, which is the original recipe of Sangju Drink given elsewhere. One dose will relieve the symptoms, two doses will cure the disease.

Last winter I caught a cold, had a headache and cough, but no thirst. I thought it was a cold, so I bought a box of Qufeng Zhitong capsules. After taking them, my cough did not subside, and I had a stuffy nose, runny nose, and blood in the mucus. Because the temperature was high last winter, the diagnosis was a wind-heat cold. I immediately went to buy two boxes of Sangju cold tablets. After taking them, my cough, nasal congestion and runny nose were all cured.

The above shows that reed root can not only clear away heat, promote diuresis, promote body fluid and quench thirst, but also clear lung heat, treat rhinitis and relieve cough.