Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Bu Fei Tang is a Chinese herbal formula. Its name means Tonify the Lungs Decoction. You drink it warm, like a tea.
It is used for a long-running weak cough. Other signs are shortness of breath, a quiet voice, sweating and tiredness. In traditional terms, this picture is called "Lung qi deficiency".
It is sold and prescribed as one preparation (a TCM formula). Even so, it is made from several herbs mixed in set amounts. The usual herbs are ginseng, astragalus, prepared rehmannia, schisandra, aster root and mulberry root bark.
The evidence in one line: the record of use inside Chinese medicine is long and respected. But no good human trials in English show what it does. Long traditional use is not proof of effect, and that gap applies to everything on this page.
Honestly, nobody has shown how it works in people.
In Chinese medicine, the formula is said to "tonify Lung qi". The idea is that it builds up a weak breathing system. The cough then settles and the breath steadies.
That is a traditional model of the body. It is not a description of measured biology.
Lab and animal studies of the single herbs hint at some action. Astragalus and ginseng extracts affect immune cells in the dish. Schisandra affects liver enzymes that break down medicines.
None of that has been shown to help a person with a cough.
You will usually meet it in one of these forms.
Raw dried herbs. A practitioner weighs them out for you. You then simmer them at home into a decoction (a strong tea made by boiling).
Granules or powder, stirred into hot water.
Ready-made pills or capsules.
Pre-made liquid vials.
A practitioner will often change the herbs or the amounts to suit you. So two prescriptions with the same name may not be the same.
Bu Fei Tang turns up in Chinese medical writing from about the 14th to the 17th century. It is recorded in classical collections such as Yong Lei Qian Fang and the Ming-era Zheng Zhi Zhun Sheng.
It has stayed in use ever since. Chinese medicine colleges today teach it as the standard formula for a weak, long-term cough.
It belongs to one tradition, not many. That is why it sits on the traditional axis, as a long-standing staple of Chinese medicine.
See a doctor straight away if you cough up blood, feel breathless while sitting still, have chest pain, or your lips or fingertips turn blue.
Book an appointment soon if a cough lasts more than three weeks, you are losing weight without trying, you have night sweats or a fever, or your voice has been hoarse for more than three weeks.
Stop the formula and speak to a doctor or pharmacist if you get a rash, yellowing of the skin or eyes, unusual bruising or bleeding, or if your blood sugar or blood pressure readings change after starting it.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
Reviewed by the HealisticMD editorial team How we grade evidence →
The published evidence for Bu Fei Tang is weak or absent. That usually means no controlled trial has tested it, not that a trial found it ineffective — the two are different, and we grade only what has been published.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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