Summerheat-Clearing Qi-Boosting Decoction

Summerheat-Clearing Qi-Boosting Decoction

Panacis Quinquefolii Radix (Xi Yang Shen) 5g, Dendrobii Caulis (Shi Hu) 15g, Ophiopogonis Radix (Mai Dong) 9g, Coptidis Rhizoma (Huang Lian) 3g, Lophatheri Herba (Zhu Ye) 6g, Petiolus Nelmbinis (He Geng) 15g, Anemarrhenae Rhizoma (Zhi Mu) 6g, Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma (Gan Cao) 3g, Semen Oryza Sativa (Jing Mi) 15g, Exocarpium Citrulli (Xi Gua Pi) 30g

Use water to decoct the medicinals.

Clears summerheat, boosts qi, nourishes yin, and generates fluids.

This formula is indicated for patterns of summerheat with damage to both qi and fluids. The symptoms are fever with profuse sweating, thirst and vexation, scanty dark urine, fatigue and weak breathing, listlessness, and a deficient, rapid pulse.

This is a commonly used formula for summerheat damaging both qi and fluids. The cause of the pattern is inward invasion of summerheat-heat, causing the consumption of qi and fluids. Since summerheat is a yang pathogen, and communicates with the heart, when summerheat-heat attacks the human body it causes a fever. Pathogenic summerheat-heat harasses the heart and causes vexation. Scattering and ascending summerheat loosens and opens the striae and interstices, which leads to profuse sweating. Heat damages the fluids and leads to thirst and scanty dark urine. Summerheat easily consumes qi, which causes fatigue, weak breathing, listlessness, and a deficient pulse. Wang Shi-xiong said, “since summerheat damages the qi and fluids, the method of clearing summerheat-heat and boosting the original qi has a good remedial effect to this pattern”《Warp and Woof of Warm-Heat Diseases》. Therefore, the therapeutic method for this pattern is to combine the summerheat-dispelling and heat -clearing method with the qi-boosting and fluids-generating method.

1. Essential pattern differentiation Qing Shu Yi Qi Tang is a commonly used formula used to treat summerheat damage during the summer with damage to both qi and yin. This clinical pattern is marked by fatigue and weak breathing, thirst and profuse sweating, deficient, rapid pulse. 2. Modern applications This formula may be used in the following biomedically defined disorders when the patient shows signs of summerheat-strike and heat damage to both qi and fluids: summerheat damage during the summer, summer fever in children, flare up of bronchial asthma during summer, pneumonia, and the convalescence stage of other acute infectious diseases. 3. Cautions and contraindications As there are nourishing and greasy medicinals in the formula, do not use the formula for summerheat disease with dampness.

Qing Shu Yi Qi Tang (Cock’s Waking Powder 清暑益氣湯)

1. Dendrobium nobile is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix II. Their trade is allowed but subject to licensing controls. 2. Dendrobium officinale is listed as "Critically endangered" in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Also, it is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix II. Their trade is allowed but subject to licensing controls. 3. Dendrobium fimbriatum is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix II. Their trade is allowed but subject to licensing controls. 4. American ginseng ( Panax quinquefolius ) is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix II. Its trade is allowed but subject to licensing controls.