Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Lilium lancifolium
Pronounced LIL-ee bulb (bye-HUH); LIL-ee-um lan-sih-FOH-lee-um
Cool, moist, sweet yin tonic: the quiet moistener that soothes a dry, heat-frayed Lung and settles a grieving, restless spirit back into stillness.
The bulb has a long history of dietary use and culinary and food amounts are generally considered acceptable. Some secondary TCM safety sources note a possible teratogenic effect at high doses in animal studies, so concentrated high-dose medicinal preparations should be avoided in pregnancy; keep to food amounts. Not documented as a classical abortifacient or emmenagogue. (Traditional food-use record; TCM materia medica and Me&Qi safety database. AHPA-specific rating not confirmed: see flags.)
No documented concerns; considered safe at food and standard supportive doses given the bulb's food-grade status. Formal lactation data are limited, so favor culinary and standard decoction amounts. (Traditional food-use record; TCM materia medica.)
Food-grade and commonly eaten (fresh or dried bulb in congee and soups). Considered safe for children at culinary and standard supportive doses; a gentle moistening herb used in TCM pediatric practice for dry, heat-type cough.
Cool and cloying: can burden a weak, cold, damp digestion and provoke loose stools. Do not use to suppress an acute wind-cold or phlegm-damp cough, where the moistening, cooling action can trap the pathogen. Mildly sedative, so it can add to drowsiness. Culinary amounts of the food-grade bulb are broadly safe.
Spleen and Stomach deficiency-cold with diarrhea or loose stools; acute wind-cold or cold-phlegm cough; damp-phlegm accumulation. Discontinue if it causes loose stools or chilliness.
Widely cultivated across China (notably Hunan, Gansu, and Jiangsu) as both a food crop and a medicinal; not listed as at-risk. Prefer cultivated, food-grade bulbs. Important pet-safety warning: Lilium species are acutely nephrotoxic to cats, and even small ingestion of any plant part is a veterinary emergency, so keep bulbs and plants well away from cats.
The lily is named in Scripture (Song of Solomon 2:1-2, 'the lily of the valleys' and 'as the lily among thorns'; Matthew 6:28 and Luke 12:27, 'consider the lilies of the field'), but the biblical lily (Hebrew shoshannah) is a Mediterranean flower, not this East Asian medicinal species. Medicinal Bai He is a Chinese herb first recorded in the Shennong Ben Cao Jing (c. 200 CE); it belongs to the Chinese, not the biblical, materia medica.
The same herb can calm one person and wire another. Our free assessment reads your pattern across temperature, moisture and tone, then matches herbs to it.
Teaching children at home? Eden's Table builds a full herbalism curriculum around plants like this one.
