Formulas · Harmonize 和解 · Junggyeong (仲景)

Licorice Heart-Draining Decoction

Gamchosasim-tang

한글 감초사심탕 · Pinyin Gan Cao Xie Xin Tang

甘草瀉心湯

Composition 構成

Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

8 g
Chief 君
Hwanggeum Huang Qin
黃芩 황금 · Scutellaria

6 g
Deputy 臣
Geongang Gan Jiang
乾薑 건강 · Dried Ginger

6 g
Deputy 臣
Banha Ban Xia
半夏 반하 · Pinellia

4 g
Deputy 臣

processed
Insam Ren Shen
人蔘 인삼 · Ginseng

4 g
Deputy 臣
Hwangnyeon Huang Lian
黃連 황련 · Coptis

2 g
Deputy 臣
Daejo Da Zao
大棗 대조 · Jujube

—
Envoy 使

three dates

Total 30 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 1 ingredient measured by count or used as a vehicle, shown as —.

Received this formula from your practitioner? Amounts shown here are classical reference values — granule and prepared products differ. Always follow your prescribed dosage and directions.

Actions 效能

Harmonizes and supplements the middle while draining stuffiness
Settles a stomach emptied by repeated purging

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Epigastric stuffiness after repeated purging with the middle emptied
Cold and heat intermingled with rumbling and diarrhoea and restlessness

Biomedical correlates

Post-antibiotic or post-purgative diarrhoea with bloating
Aphthous ulceration with digestive upset

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

甘草二錢, 黃芩ㆍ乾薑各一錢半, 半夏(製)ㆍ人參各一錢, 黃連五分. 右剉, 作一貼, 入大棗三枚, 水煎服. 《仲景》

Translation

Licorice, 2 don; scutellaria and dried ginger, 1 don 5 fun each; processed pinellia and ginseng, 1 don each; coptis, 5 fun. Cut up, make one packet, add three jujubes and decoct in water. — Junggyeong 仲景 (Donguibogam · Han, lower)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Pinellia Heart-Draining with licorice promoted to chief and pinellia dropped back, which shifts the whole formula from settling the stomach to rebuilding it. The pattern it answers is iatrogenic: a patient purged once too often, whose stuffiness is now sitting on an empty middle. Licorice at the top dose and three dates instead of two make this the gentlest of the five, and the only one in which the supplementing outweighs the draining. Also the formula the later tradition reaches for in recurrent mouth and genital ulceration. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.