This formula is indicated for heat toxin bloody dysentery. The symptoms are stools with pus and fresh blood, abdominal pain, abdominal urgency with rectal heaviness, burning sensation in the anus, thirst with a desire to drink, a red tongue with yellow coating, and a slippery, rapid pulse.

This formula treats pathogenic cold directly attacking the three yin channels, causing yang weakness. This pattern is characterized by reversal cold of the limbs, debilitated spirit, desire to sleep, aversion to cold, lying curled up, vomiting and diarrhea, stomach pain, no thirst, shivering, greenish-purple nails and lips, frothy saliva, a pale white tongue body with a white tongue coating, and a deep, feeble or barely perceivable pulse.

Di Huang Yin Zi is indicated for yin fei syndrome (aphasia and apraxia) due to kidney qi deficiency and phlegm invading upward manifested as aphasia due to stiffness of the tongue, apraxia of the legs, thirst without a desire to drink, cold legs, and flushed face. The pulse is deep, thin, and weak.

An Gong Niu Huang Wan is indicated for a pattern of pathogenic heat invading the pericardium. The symptoms are high fever, vexation, unconsciousness, delirium, stiffness of the tongue and cold limbs. The tongue is red or crimson, and the pulse is rapid and forceful. It is also indicated for pathogenic heat causing internal block, wind strike, unconsciousness, and infantile convulsion.