WH Acupuncture & Herbs Centre

Coptis Decoction(huang lian tang)，(Treatise on Cold-Attack)：

Coptis root 6g， Roasted licorice root 6g,  dry ginger 5g,  cassia twig 5g,  ginseng 3g,  pinellia tuber 9g,  Chinese date 4 pcs.

[Effects]: equally harmonizing cold and heat to regulate stomach-qi and lower rebellious-qi.

[Indications]: heat in chest and cold in stomach manifested by irritable distress of chest, tendency of vomiting, abdominal pain, or bowel sound with diar­rhea, white and slippery coating, taut pulse.

NOTES: All the Pinellia Heart-Purging Decoction, Ginger Heart-Purging De­coction, Licorice Heart-Purging Decoction and Coptis Decoction are formulae to harmonize cold and heat by opening with pungent flavor and lowering with bitter flavor. Applying herbs of both cold and hot natures,

Pinellia Heart-Purging De­coction is mainly applied to symptoms of epigastric stuffiness, retching, bowel sound with diarrhea;

Ginger Heart-Purging Decoction can harmonize the stomach and disperse water and is mainly applied to the joint attack of water evil and heat evil manifested by retching with fetid odor, thundering borborygmus with diarrhe- a, so adding the fresh ginger to disperse water;

Licorice Heart-Purging Decoction can reinforce the stomach-qi to relieve stuffiness and is mainly applied to severe deficiency of the stomach-qi due to erroneous purgation manifested by vexation and restlessness, serious stuffiness of epigastrium, so increasing the dosage of lic­orice root for reinforcement;

Coptis Decoction can harmonizes cold and heat equal­ly and is mainly applied to symptoms of irritable feverish sensation in chest, vomi­ting and abdominal pain, so removing scutellaria root from Pinellia Heart-Purging Decoction and adding cassia twig to disperse the stomach cold.