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Virgate Wormwood Decoction

Virgate Wormwood DecoctionFormula Image

Virgate Wormwood Decoction
ChiefYin Chen
    • used heavily because of its bitter and descending nature
    • clears heat and drains dampness
    • key medicinal for jaundice
DeputyZhi Zi
    • clears heat and subdues fire
    • clears and dredges the sanjiao
Helps yin chen to guide damp-heat downward through urination.
AssistantDa Huang
    • discharges heat and eliminates blood stasis
    • promotes bowel movement
Guides static heat downward through defecation.

Virgate Wormwood DecoctionPrescription Information

Name
Virgate Wormwood Decoction
Chinese Name

茵陈蒿汤

Classification

Dampclearing formulas

Combination
Artemisiae Scopariae Herba (Yin Chen) 6 liang (18g), Gardeniae Fructus (Zhi Zi) 14 pieces (12g), Rhei Radix et Rhizoma (Da Huang) 2 liang (6g)
Method
Prepare as a decoction.
Action
Clears heat, drains dampness, and relieves jaundice.
Indication
Yin Chen Hao Tang is indicated for damp-heat jaundice. The symptoms are bright yellow discoloration of the skin, fever, absence of sweating or only sweating on the head, thirst with a desire to drink, nausea, vomiting, slight abdominal distension, scanty and dark urine, diarrhea, or constipation. The tongue is red with a greasy and yellow coating. The pulse is either deep, rapid or slippery, rapid and powerful.
Pathogenesis
This formula is a common formula used to treat damp-heat jaundice.《Treatise on Cold Damage》explains that it is used for yellow skin discoloration due to the interaction of blood stasis and heat.《Essentials from the Golden Cabinet》explains that it is used for dietary jaundice. Both are caused by heat invasion that mixes with spleen-dampness to cause damp-heat accumulation in the middle jiao. Damp-heat always obstructs qi movement. The manifestations include abdominal distension, nausea, vomiting, incomplete defecation, and constipation. Heat is trapped inside due to an absence of sweating and dampness cannot pour downward due to dysuria. Consequently, damp-heat enters the liver and gallbladder causing an overflow of bile that results in bright yellow skin. Fluid transformation disturbed by damp-heat leads to thirst. A greasy and yellow tongue coating and a deep, rapid pulse indicate an accumulation of damp-heat. The therapeutic principles used to remedy this pattern are to clear heat, drain dampness, and relieve jaundice.
Application
1. Essential pattern differentiation Yin Chen Hao Tang is a commonly used formula applicable for jaundice due to damp-heat with equal dampness and heat. This clinical pattern is marked by yellow discoloration of the skin, face, and eyes; the yellow is bright, deep and rapid pulse, or slippery, rapid, and powerful pulse. 2. Modern applications This formula may be used in the following biomedically defined disorders when the patient shows signs of interior damp-heat accumulation: infectious hepatitis with acute jaundice, cholecystitis, gallstone, and jaundice caused by leptospirosis.
Additonal formulae
1. Zhi Zi Bai Pi Tang (Gardenia and Phellodendron Bark Decoction 梔子柏皮湯)
Source
《Treatise on Cold Damage》Shang Han Lun《傷寒論》

Virgate Wormwood DecoctionFormulation composition herbal medicine

Common Gardenia Fruit

Common Gardenia Fruit

Gardeniae Fructus
Functions：Drains fire, eliminates vexation, clears heat, promotes urination, cools blood, resolves toxin. Apply to deficient restlessness due to pyreticosis, conjunctival congestion due to liver fire, headache, jaundice due to damp-heat, strangury, hematodiarrhoea, hematuria, mouth and tongue sore, swelling pain of sore and ulcer, swelling pains caused by sprains.
Capillary Wormwood Herb

Capillary Wormwood Herb

Artemisiae Scopariae Herba
Functions：Clears heat, promotes urination, reduces jaundice. Apply to jaundice, difficulty in urination, damp sores and pruritus, infectious hepatitis with jaundice.
Rhubarb|Tangute Rhubarb

Rhubarb|Tangute Rhubarb

Rhei Radix et Rhizoma
Functions：Relieves stagnation, clears dampn-heat, reduces fire, cools blood, eliminates stasis, relieves toxin. Apply to constipation induced by sthenic fever, heat and distention and full of chest, damp-heat diarrhea, jaundice, strangury, edema and sbdominal fullness, difficulty of urination, conjunctival congestion, swelling pain of throat, sor of mouth and tongue, vomiting due to heat stomach, apostaxis, cough with blood, epistaxis, hematochezia, hematuria, blood stasis, amenorrhea, postpartum stasis and pain, abdominal mass accumulation, trsumatic injury, carbuncle and ulcer due to heat toxin, erysipelas, empyrosis.
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