All the bamboo materials have a mild sweet taste and all parts but the leaves are used to resolve phlegm. While the phlegm disorder to be addressed may be related to lung heat causing coughing and sticky phlegm, bamboo is especially used for the disorder of hot phlegm that coats or obstructs the "orifices of the heart," affecting the brain functions. Thus, it is used for epilepsy, fainting and loss of consciousness in feverish diseases, and a variety of mental disorders that develop with aging. Lophatherum (bamboo leaf) and bamboo shavings are commonly used in cases of stomach heat, providing a cooling effect and helping counter the perverse flow of qi (upward flow instead of the normal downward flow).
By Acabashi (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons