Several Worthwhile Empirical Formulas, April 15, 1998

Several Worthwhile Empirical Formulas, April 15, 1998

1. Yulin Pearl

The name “Pearl” signifies the preciousness of this formula, as if holding a divine treasure. Ingredients include angelica root 10 g, white peony root 10 g, chuanxiong 6 g, raw rehmannia root 12 g, codonopsis pilosula 10 g, atractylodes 10 g, poria 12 g, licorice 6 g, deer antler frost 10 g (melted), dodder seed 10 g, eucommia bark 10 g, and Sichuan pepper 10 g. It can be prepared as a decoction, taken once daily, or concentrated fivefold into pills, 1–2 pills taken twice daily with warm water. For cold uterus, add ginger, cinnamon, and fu zi; for hot uterus, add motherwort, dictamnus bark, and moutan cortex; for abdominal pain, add costus root and psoralea corylifolia. Mnemonic: Dodder, Sichuan pepper, glue, two barks, motherwort, uterine deficiency, ginger, cinnamon, and fu zi.

2. Cough Formula for Upper Respiratory Tract Infections

Fifty years ago, my cough remained stubbornly unresponsive to treatment. My father cured it with this formula, and just three doses were enough to eradicate it. Mulberry leaves 10 g, chrysanthemums 20 g, pinellia 6 g, tangerine peel 6 g, poria 12 g, stemona 6 g, schizonepeta 10 g, peucedanum 10 g, white peucedanum 10 g, aster 10 g, platycodon 20 g, licorice 6 g, ephedra 10 g, apricot kernels 10 g, raw gypsum 20 g, roasted loquat leaves 10 g, zhejiang fritillaria 10 g, peppermint 10 g. This is a standard formula, but loquat, fritillaria, and peppermint are particularly valuable, as their pinyin initials all begin with “B,” so it could be called the “Three B Soup.”