Apricot Kernel and Perilla Powder

Apricot Kernel and Perilla Powder

Perillae Folium (Zi Su Ye) 9g, Pinelliae Rhizoma (Ban Xia) 9g, Poria (Fu Ling) 9g, Peucedani Radix (Qian Hu) 9g, Platycodonis Radix (Jie Geng) 6g, Aurantii Fructus (Zhi Qiao) 6g, Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma (Gan Cao) 3g, Zingiberis Rhizoma Recens (Sheng Jiang) 3 slices, Jujubae Fructus (Da Zao) 3 pieces, Armeniacae Semen Amarum (Xing Ren) 9g, Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium (Ju Pi) 6g

Prepare the ingredients as a decoction to be ingested while warm.

Relieves cool-dryness by light diffusion, regulates lung function, and dissolves phlegm.

Xing Su San is indicated for patterns of externally-contracted cool-dryness. The symptoms are aversion to cold, mild headache, coughing with scanty sputum, stuffy nose, and a dry throat. The tongue coating is white, and the pulse is wiry.

This pattern is caused by cool-dryness attacking the exterior with failure of the lung qi to diffuse and internal obstruction of phlegm-dampness. The mild headache and chills without sweating indicate that cool-dryness has attacked the skin and hair. Headaches caused by cool-dryness are less severe than headaches due to cold damage syndrome. Cool-dryness may invade the lung and cause failure of the lung to diffuse and govern descent as well as failure of lung qi to distribute fluids. As a result, water accumulates and turns into phlegm causing symptoms such as coughing with thin sputum. Cool-dryness damages the lung to cause dysfunction of lung qi characterized by a stuffy nose and a dry throat. A white tongue coating and a wiry pulse prove the pattern of cool-dryness with sputum-dampness. The composition of this formula is based on the principle described within Basic Questions: “Dry pathogenic qi is treated internally with bitter and warm medicinals, and sweet and acrid medicinals are used adjunctively”. This disorder should be treated primarily via relieving cool-dryness by light diffusion and supported by regulating the function of the lung to dissolve phlegm.

1. Essential pattern differentiation Xing Su San is a characteristic formula commonly used to relieve cool-dryness by light diffusion, and a popular formula used to treat cough due to wind-cold. This clinical pattern is marked by aversion to cold, absence of perspiration, coughing with thin sputum, dry throat, white coating, wiry pulse. 2. Modern applications This formula may be used in the following biomedically defined disorders when the patient shows signs of externally-contracted cool-dryness or a mild pattern of externally-contracted wind-cold, failure of lung qi to diffuse, and internal obstruction of phlegm-dampness: upper respiratory tract infection, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. 3. Cautions and contraindications This formula is not applicable for patients diagnosed with the cool-dryness that has transformed into warm-dryness or wind-heat.