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: Exhaustion of Yang fluids producing dryness and exacerbating Heat from constraint.
Key Symptoms: Lily disorder (see below) with pronounced symptoms of heat and dryness in the upper Jiao such as insomnia, dizziness, cough, restlessness
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
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Bai He
| 15-30g | |
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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. |
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|
Zhi Mu
| 15-30g | | |
Pinyin: Zhi Mu
Chinese: 知母
Pharmaceutical: Rhizoma Anemarrhenae
Taxonomy: Anemarrhena asphodeloides
English: Anemarrhena Rhizome |
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Tastes: Bitter, sweet, cold
Meridians Entered: Lung, Stomach and Kidney |
Actions & Indications:
- Clears Heat and drains Fire (Clears Heat from the Qi Stage, from the Lungs and from the Stomach)
Heat in the Qi Stage with high fever, irritability, restlessness, thirst and a rapid, flooding pulse.
Lung Heat and Dryness with cough and expectoration of thick, yellow Phlegm
Yang Ming Heat
Stomach Heat
- Nourishes Yin and moistens Dryness
Lung and Kidney Yin Deficiency with night sweats, steaming bone disorder, irritability, afternoon or low grade fever, Five Sole Heat and bleeding gums
(Stomach Yin Deficiency)
Kidney Heat with spermatorrhea, nocturnal emissions and an abnormally elevated sex drive
- Generates Fluids, clears Deficiency Fire and quenches thirst
Oral ulcers and inflammation, steaming bones and Xiao Ke (diabetes) due to Yin Deficiency
- Ameliorates the Dryness of tonifying or warming herbs
For use with herbs such as Rx. Astragali Huang Qi, Ram. Cinnamomi Gui Zhi, Rx. Aconiti Lateralis Preparata Zhi Fu Zi when there is concern that these herbs may be too drying
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Standard Dosage: 5-15g in decoction.
Cautions: It is not suitable for deficiency cold syndrome. Being cold and moist in property, it is prohibited to be used for those who have a spleen-deficiency diarrhea. |
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Preparation: Decoction.
Actions: Moistens the Lungs, enriches the fluids, clears Heat, cools the Blood
Notes:
Originally for when symptoms of Heat are mistaken for a Taiyang pattern and the patient is treated by mistakenly inducing sweating.
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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.
