Objective To analyze the symptoms-herbs relationship in clinical literature on lung diseases with data mining technique.Methods The clinical literature on treating lung diseases based on theory of ’lung and large intestine stand in interior-exterior relationship’ was searched in China Biomedical Literature Database

Chinese Medicine Literature Database

VIP Database

and Chinese Academic Journal Full-text Database.The information was extracted from 152 articles met the study criteria to build the clinical literature database.The frequent itemsets and relationships of symptoms and herbs were analyzed with association rule method.Results In the treatment for lung diseases

the top 3 unitary frequent itemsets were Gualou （Fructus Trichosanthis）

Dahuang （Radix et Rhizoma Rhei） and Kuxingren （Semen Armeniacae Amarum）

the top 3 binary frequent itemsets were Dahuang-Gualou

Kuxingren-Gualou and Kuxingren-Dahuang

and the top 3 ternary frequent itemsets were Kuxingren-Dahuang-Gualou

Gancao （Radix et Rhizoma Glycyrrhizae）-Dahuang-Gualou and Zhishi （Fructus Aurantii Immaturus）-Houpo （Cortex Magnoliae Officinalis）-Gualou.In the symptoms of lung diseases

the top 5 unitary frequent itemsets were cough

wheezing

red tongue

constipation and fever

and the top 3 binary frequent itemsets were wheezing-cough

fever-cough and red tongue-cough.For every core symptoms

the core herbs were Dahuang

Gualou and Kuxingren.Conclusion In the literature on treating lung diseases based on theory of ’lung and large intestine stand in interior-exterior relationship’

the commonly used core herbs are Dahuang

Gualou and Kuxingren for the core symptoms of cough

fever

wheezing

yellow urine and constipation.