Pinellia and Officinal Magnolia Bark Decoction

Pinellia and Officinal Magnolia Bark Decoction

Pinelliae Rhizoma (Ban Xia) 1 sheng (12g), Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex (Hou Po) 3 liang (9g), Poria (Fu Ling) 4 liang (12g), Zingiberis Rhizoma Recens (Sheng Jiang) 5 liang (15g), Perillae Folium (Zi Su Ye) 2 liang (6g)

Prepare as a decoction.

Moves qi and dissipates masses, directs counterflow downward and dissolves phlegm.

Ban Xia Hou Po Tang is indicated for plum-stone qi (globus hystericus). The symptoms are fullness and tightness in the chest and diaphragm, coughing, and vomiting. The tongue coating is white and moist or white and glossy. The pulse is wiry and slow or wiry and slippery.

Plum-stone qi primarily manifests a sensation that something is lodged, obstructing the throat that can be neither removed through emesis nor swallowing. However, there is no problem swallowing food. This pattern is often caused by stagnant qi and phlegm obstructing the throat. Emotional frustration leads to liver qi stagnation. The lung and stomach fail to diffuse and govern descent; therefore, the body fluid cannot be distributed normally. It will instead accumulate as phlegm and bind with qi to obstruct the throat. This is why the patient has the sensation. When the lung and stomach fail to diffuse and govern descent, the qi movement in the chest is disturbed and becomes pathological. The result is chest and rib-side fullness and oppression, cough, wheezing, nausea, and vomiting. According to the pathogenesis of this pattern, the treatment principle is to move qi, dissipate masses, direct counterflow downward, and dissolve phlegm.

1. Essential pattern differentiation Ban Xia Hou Po Tang is commonly used to treat plum-stone qi caused by binding constraint of phlegm and qi. This clinical pattern is marked by sensation that something is lodged, obstructing the throat, the sensation cannot be removed through neither emesis nor swallowing, fullness and tightness in the chest and diaphragm, white, greasy coating, wiry, slippery pulse. 2. Modern applications This formula may be used in the following biomedically defined disorders, when the patient shows signs of binding constraint of phlegm and qi: hysteria, gastric neurosis, chronic pharyngitis, chronic bronchitis, and esophageal spasm. 3. Cautions and contraindications This formula contains many medicinals that are acrid-warm and bitter-drying. They are only suitable in cases of binding constraint of qi and phlegm without heat. This formula is not applicable for patients suffering plum-stone qi due to qi constraint transforming into fire, yin damage, and insufficient fluid with red cheeks, bitter taste in the mouth, and a red tongue with a scanty coating.

Officinal Magnolia ( Magnolia officinalis ) is listed as "Endangered" in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.