Author: Zhang Zhong-Jing, 張仲景
Year: c. 220
Source: Essentials from the Golden Cabinet (Jin Gui Yao Lue, 金匱要略)
Category: Formulas that Clear Heat
Pattern: Pathogenic Heat strongly constrained in the San Jiao.
Key Symptoms: Fever, mental disorientation, irritability, insomnia, palpitations, motor dysfunctions, dark urine, bitter taste in the mouth
Secondary Symptoms: Lily Disorder (Bai He Zheng, also a homonym for One Hundred Meetings Disorder) with symptoms where the patient: "desires food, yet does not want to eat, wants to lie down but is unable to lie down, wants to walk but in unable to walk... They may feel cold but have no chills, or they feel hot but have no fever... The various medicines are ineffective and when they take medicine there is intense vomiting and diarrhoea. They are as if possessed".
Pulse: Slightly rapid
Ingredients
|
Bai He
| 15-30g | |
|
Pinyin: Bai He
Chinese: 百合
Pharmaceutical: Bulbus Lilii
English: Lily Bulb |
|
Tastes: Sweet, slightly cold
Meridians Entered: Lung and Heart |
Actions & Indications:
- Nourishes Yin, moistens the Lungs, clears Heat and stops coughing
Dry coughs or sore throat due to Lung Yin Deficiency, dry Lungs or Lung Heat
Especially useful for Lung Yin Deficiency
- Clears the Heart and calms the Spirit
Intractable low-grade fever, insomnia, restlessness and irritability in the aftermath of febrile disease
Heart Fire
Palpitations due to insufficiency of Qi and Yin
One of the chief spirit calming herbs for Gu Sydnrome with Qi and Yin deficiency (Fruehauf, 1998)
Chronic inflammatory disease (Fruehauf, 2015)
- Nourishes Stomach Yin and harmonizes the Middle Jiao
Pain associated with Stomach Yin Deficiency
|
Standard Dosage: 10-30g in decoction.
Cautions: All lilies are acutely nephrotoxic to cats and some other animals due to the high level of insoluble calcium oxalate so should be not be used in vetinary formulas without absolute certainty that the animal in question is not vulnerable. Long term consumption of oxalates in humans can also lead to kidney stone formation. |
|
|
Hua Shi
| 15-30g | | |
Pinyin: Hua Shi
Chinese: 滑石
Pharmaceutical: Talcum / Magnesium Silicate
Taxonomy: Mg3Si4O10(OH)2
English: Talc / Talcum Powder |
|
Tastes: Sweet, bland and cold
Meridians Entered: Bladder, Lung and Stomach |
Actions & Indications:
- Promotes urination and drains Heat from the Urinary Bladder (aids the movement of gravel and stones), (expels Damp-Heat)
Hot Painful Urinary Dysfunction (Lin Syndrome) with hot, painful urination, dark, painful, burning, scanty urine
Damp-Heat diarrhoea
Qi Level Heat with Dampness with unremitting fever, heavy feeling in the body, thirst, yellow tongue coat
- Releases Summeheat and resolves Dampness
Summerheat (fever, urinary difficulty, thirst)
- Absorbs Dampness and clears Heat (topically)
Damp skin lesions (eczema, damp sores, prickly heat)
- Stops bleeding due to Heat
Heat type bleeding
Nosebleed, vomiting blood (taken internally)
Bleeding from wounds and sores (topical)
- Aids fasting
Mentioned in the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing as part of the superior class of minerals which can, with protracted taking, make the body light, free from hunger and prolong life. This may suggest it was part of supplementing the diet when engaging in an "avoiding grain" (Bigu 辟穀) fasting regime to cultivate life (Yangsheng 養生).
|
Standard Dosage: 10-20g in decoction, or applied externally.
Cautions: Talc can cause granulomas in the rectum, vagina or wounds and prolonged external use has also been linked to ovarian (Wentzensen & O'Brien, 2021), stomach (Chang et al., 2020) and lung (Chang et al., 2017) cancer but other reviews contradict these findings (Goodman et al., 2020) suggesting this may only be an effect seen in rats (Prueitt et al., 2024). For safety it should therefore not be used for prolonged periods.
It should also not be in inhaled as it can cause lung irritation and remain in the body for up to 40 years (Johnson, 2021).
Mineral products are prohibited from use in the UK under the Medicines Act 1968 ch. 67 which restricts herbalists to the use of plant products only. It is generally substituted with Chi Fu Ling and Ze Xie. |
|
Subsitutions:
In the UK Hua Shi must be replaced with Chi Fu Ling and Ze Xie.
Preparation: Decoction.
Actions: Moistens the Lungs, enriches the fluids, clears Heat, cools the Blood
Contraindications: Yin deficiency
Notes:
Can readily damage the Yin fluids so should be discontinued once the fever begins to abate.
---------------------------------------
One liang is taken as 3g in modern sources but in Eastern Han times it was equivalent to 13.875g. This means that the dosages in classical formulae could have been more than 4x what is given today making them far higher than recommended safe dosages today but prompts consideration of what an effective dose may be (He, 2013).
Research Links:
Reference Notes: (click to display)
Most formulas are found in Scheid, Bensky, Ellis & Barolet (2009): Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas & Strategies and Chen & Chen (2015) Chinese Herbal Formulas and Applications. Others are from translations of primary sources. It is recommended that the original material is cross-referenced for mistakes and additional information.
Substitutions have been taken from Ken Lloyd & Prof. Leung (2004): Mayway UK Substitution List or the above publications and are intended as suggestions to help navigate the tight restrictions in the UK quickly. More applicable substitutions may be appropriate in specific situations.
Individual herb information has initially been sourced from TCM Wiki and American Dragon for basic data and then updated manually with my own notes.
These pages are intended to assist clinicians and are not intended for self-diagnosis or treatment for which a qualified professional should be consulted.
