Pueraria, Scutellaria, and Coptis Decoction

Pueraria, Scutellaria, and Coptis Decoction

Puerariae Lobatae Radix (Ge Gen) 0.5 jin (15g), Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma (Zhi Gan Cao) 2 liang (6g), Scutellariae Radix (Huang Qin) 3 liang (9g), Coptidis Rhizoma (Huang Lian) 3 liang (9g)

Decoct ge gen with 8 sheng (1600 ml) of water until the volume shrinks to about 6 sheng (1200 ml). Then decoct the other medicinals in the formula with the ge gen decoction, and boil it down until the volume to about 400 ml. Filter the decoction and take it warm. (Modern use: use water to decoct the medicinals.)

Releases the exterior and clears the interior.

This formula is indicated for diarrhea with fever. The symptoms are diarrhea, fever, smelly, foul, thick, and sticky stool, burning sensation in the anus, panting with sweating, vexing heat in the chest and stomach cavities, thirst, dark urine, a red tongue body with a yellow coating, and a rapid pulse.

This is a pattern of diarrhea with fever, which was caused by inappropriate purging of an exterior taiyang syndrome leading to an inward invasion of the exterior pathogens to the yangming large intestine. You Yi pointed out that “70% of the exterior pathogens invaded inward, leaving the remaining 30% in the fleshy exterior.” Intense heat in the large intestine makes it incapable to conduct and transmit, causing diarrhea with fever, smelly, foul, thick, and sticky stool, and a burning sensation in anus. Since there is an interior-exterior relationship between the lung and large intestine, the heat in the large intestine steams up to the lung to cause panting, and to the fleshy exterior where it steams to cause sweating. Intense heat damages the fluids, which produces a vexing heat, suppressed sensation in the chest, thirst, and scant dark urine. A red tongue with a yellow coating and a rapid pulse are signs of intense interior heat. The characteristic features of this pattern’s pathogenesis is the residual exterior pathogens, intense heat in the large intestine, failure of the large intestine to conduct and transmit, and the heat steaming the lung and fleshy exterior. Therefore, the therapeutic method is to eliminate the residual exterior pathogens from the fleshy exterior, and clear the intense interior heat from the large intestine.

1. Essential pattern differentiation Ge Gen Huang Qin Huang Lian Tang is a commonly used formula used to treat heat diarrhea and heat dysentery, either with an exterior pattern or without. This clinical pattern is marked by diarrhea with fever, fever, smelly, foul, thick, and sticky stool, burning sensation in the anus, red tongue body with yellow coating, and rapid pulse. 2. Modern applications This formula may be used in the following biomedically defined disorders when the patient shows signs of diarrhea and dysentery caused by heat in the large intestine: acute gastroenteritis, chronic nonspecific ulcerative colitis, hemorrhagic enteritis, bacillary dysentery, diarrhea caused by measles, rotavirus enteritis, toxic gastroenteritis in children, amebic dysentery, ileotyphus, diabetes mellitus, and diarrhea caused by chemotherapy for malignant tumors. 3. Cautions and contraindications Do not use the formula for patients with deficiency cold patterns of diarrhea and dysentery.