Six-Ingredient Rehmannia Pill

Six-Ingredient Rehmannia Pill

Rehmanniae Radix Praeparata (Shu Di Huang) 8 qian (24g), Corni Fructus (Shan Zhu Yu) 4 qian (12g), Dioscoreae Rhizoma (Shan Yao) 4 qian (12g), Alismatis Rhizoma (Ze Xie) 3 qian (9g), Moutan Cortex (Mu Dan Pi) 3 qian (9g), Poria (Fu Ling) 3 qian (9g)

Grind the ingredients into powder and form into pills the size of a phoenix tree seed using honey. Three pills are taken before meals with warm water. It can also be prepared as a decoction.

Supplements and nourishes the liver and kidney.

Liu Wei Di Huang Wan is indicated for liver-kidney yin deficiency. The symptoms are soreness of the waist and knees, dizziness, tinnitus, deafness, night sweat, seminal emission, xiao ke (wasting-thirst), steaming bone fever, feverish feeling in the palms and soles, a dry mouth and throat, loosening of the teeth, heel pain, dribbling of urine, and unclosed fontanel in children. The tongue is red with scanty coating and the pulse is deep, thready, and rapid.

The kidney stores the essence and is considered to be the foundation of the congenital (prenatal) constitution. The liver stores the blood. Essence and blood can convert into each other. Therefore, yin and blood deficiency of the liver and kidney will usually interact with each other. The lumbus is the house of the kidney, which governs bone and generates marrow. The teeth are the surplus of the bones and the knees are the house of the sinews. Therefore, kidney yin deficiency leads to an insufficiency of bone marrow, which causes soreness of the waist and knees and loosening of the teeth. The brain is the sea of marrow. Kidney yin deficiency fails to generate the marrow needed to replenish the brain. Deficient liver blood fails to supplement the brain and the eyes causing dizziness. The kidney opens its orifice into the ears. Deficient kidney yin is unable to supplement the upper part of the body. Also, deficient heat may affect the clear orifices and cause tinnitus and deafness. The kidney stores the essence. Kidney yin deficiency causes seminal emission due to ministerial fire disturbing the essence chamber. Yin deficiency generates internal heat, or may even cause deficiency fire to flame upward. The symptoms present as steaming bone fever, xiao ke, night sweat, dribbling of urine, a red tongue with scanty coating, and a deep, thready, and rapid pulse. The failure of the fontanel to close in children is caused by slow bone growth due to kidney deficiency. The therapeutic principles used to remedy this pattern are to supplement liver-kidney yin, clear deficiency-heat, and drain damp-turbidity.

1. Essential pattern differentiation Liu Wei Di Huang Wan is a commonly used formula applicable to liver-kidney yin deficiency. It is inappropriate for patients suffering diarrhea due to spleen deficiency.This clinical pattern is marked by soreness of the waist and knees, dizziness, dry mouth and throat, red tongue with scanty coating, deep, thready, and rapid pulse. 2. Modern applications Liu Wei Di Huang Wan may be used in the following biomedically defined disorders when the patient shows signs of kidney yin deficiency: chronic nephritis, hypertension, diabetes, pulmonary tuberculosis, nephrotuberculosis, hyperthyroidism, central retinitis, anovulatory dysfunctional uterine bleeding, and menopausal syndrome. 3. Cautions and contraindications Use with caution in patients with diarrhea due to spleen deficiency.

1. Zhi Bai Di Huang Wan (Anemarrhena, Phellodendron and Rehmannia Pill 知柏地黃丸)