Center-Regulating Pill

Center-Regulating Pill

Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma (Ren Shen) 3 liang (90g), Zingiberis Rhizoma (Gan Jiang) 3 liang (90g), Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma Praeparata cum Melle (Zhi Gan Cao) 3 liang (90g), Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma (Bai Zhu) 3 liang (90g)

As a pill: pound and sift these four medicinals, mix with honey to make pills as big as an egg yolk (9g). To take, break up and mix a pill with boiled water and drink when it is still warm. Take three or four doses during the day, and two at night. If the stomach is not warm after taking the pill, increase the dosage up to three or four pills. It should be noted that the therapeutic effect of the pills is weaker than that of a decoction. As a decoction: cut the four medicinals into pieces. Add to eight sheng of water and boil down until three sheng of water remains. Take the warm decoction three times a day. Eat one sheng of hot porridge a little while after drinking the decoction. If the body feels hot at this point, the clothes should be kept on. (Modern use: grind these four medicinals into fine powder, mix with honey to make pills about 9g, take one pill each time with warm water, two or three times a day. Or use as decoction, adjust the medicinal dosages according to their original proportions.)

Warms the center and dispels cold, boosts qi and supplements the spleen.

This formula is indicated for:

This formula is indicated for patterns caused by deficiency-cold of the spleen and stomach. Insufficiency of center yang produces cold, yang deficiency fails to warm, and cold has the property of coagulation and stagnation so there is a fear of cold, cold limbs, and occasional abdominal pain reduced by pressure and warmth. The spleen governs transportation and transformation and controls the ascent of the clear, while the stomach governs receiving food and the descent of the turbid. However in patterns of deficiency-cold of the spleen and stomach the ascending and descending function is damaged, so there is distention and fullness of the stomach, poor appetite, vomiting, and loose stool. All manifestations such as the pale tongue with a white, watery coating, lack of thirst, and a deep, thin or deep, slow and feeble pulse refers to deficiency-cold. The treatment is to warm the center in order to dispel cold, boost qi, and fortify the spleen.

1. Essential pattern differentiation This is a basic formula for deficiency-cold of the spleen and stomach, also known as deficiency-cold of the middle jiao. This clinical pattern is marked by chronic continuous abdominal pain or stomachache, vomiting, diarrhea, fear of cold and cold limbs, pale tongue with white coating, thin, deep pulse. 2. Modern applications This formula may be used in the following biomedically defined disorders when the patient shows signs of deficiency-cold of the spleen and stomach: acute or chronic gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcers, stomach cramps, gastroptosis, gastric dilatation, and chronic colitis. 3. Cautions and contraindications This formula is prohibited for syndromes of damp-heat accumulation in the middle jiao, or spleen-stomach yin deficiency.

1. Fu Zi Li Zhong Wan (Aconite Center-Regulating Pill 附子理中丸)

Ginseng ( Panax ginseng ) 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.