Mume Plum Decoction

Omae-tang

한글 오매탕 · Pinyin Wu Mei Tang

烏梅湯

Composition 構成

Siho Chai Hu
柴胡 시호 · Bupleurum

8 g
Chief 君
Chija Zhi Zi
梔子 치자 · Gardenia

4 g
Chief 君

parched
Hwanggeum Huang Qin
黃芩 황금 · Scutellaria

4 g
Deputy 臣
Omae Wu Mei
烏梅 오매 · Mume Plum

—
Deputy 臣

two, flesh only
Damdusi Dan Dou Chi
淡豆豉 담두시 · Prepared Soybean

—
Assistant 佐

fifty grains
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

4 g
Envoy 使

roasted
Saenggang Sheng Jiang
生薑 생강 · Fresh Ginger

—
Envoy 使

three slices

Total 20 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 3 ingredients 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

Clears residual heat and relieves vexation
Restores sleep after cold damage

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Vexation and sleeplessness after cold damage with a gnawing distress in the chest
Residual heat harassing the heart

Biomedical correlates

Convalescent insomnia with agitation
Post-infectious anxiety

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治傷寒後虛煩不得眠ㆍ心中懊憹. 柴胡二錢, 梔子(炒)ㆍ黃芩ㆍ甘草(灸) 各一錢, 烏梅肉二箇. 右剉, 作一貼, 入薑三片, 豉五十粒, 同煎服. 《活人》

Translation

Treats the depletion vexation and sleeplessness that follow cold damage, with a gnawing distress in the chest. Bupleurum, 2 don; parched gardenia, scutellaria and roasted licorice, 1 don each; mume plum flesh, two. Cut up, make one packet, add three slices of ginger and fifty grains of fermented soybean and decoct together. — Hwarin 活人 (Donguibogam · Han, lower)

Clinical commentary 臨床

懊憹 is one of the better words in the classical vocabulary — a gnawing, unlocatable distress in the chest that keeps a patient from sleeping — and it is the sign that calls for gardenia and fermented soybean, which are the core of Zhongjing's formula for it. Here they sit inside a bupleurum formula, because the heat is caught half in and half out, and two mume plums are added, sour, to pull back the fluids a long fever has spent. The vexation is specified as depletion vexation, which is the distinction that matters: this is not heat to be purged but heat in an emptied patient, so the formula vents and holds at the same time. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.