Zhigancao tang
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| Kind | Traditional medicine |
|---|---|
| Part of the plant | Seed |
| Also called | fumai tang (複脈湯) gugamchotang (灸甘草湯) |
| Language | Chinese |
Zhigancao tang (炙甘草湯, zhìgāncǎo tāng, "roasted liquorice decoction") is a decoction of Chinese medicine of nine drugs, one of them half a sheng of cannabis seed (麻仁). The Shanghan lun of Zhang Zhongjing gives it for a "knotted and intermittent" pulse (結代) with palpitations (心動悸) in cold damage, and gives it the second name fumai tang (複脈湯), "pulse-restoring decoction".[1]
Making zhigancao tang
The Shanghan lun calls for four liang of roasted liquorice (甘草), three liang of sliced fresh ginger (生薑), two liang of ginseng (人參), three liang of peeled cinnamon twig (桂枝), one jin of fresh rehmannia root washed in wine (生地黃), two liang of donkey-hide gelatin (阿膠), half a jin of cored ophiopogon tuber (麥門冬), half a sheng of cannabis seed and 30 split jujubes (大棗). The eight drugs other than the gelatin are boiled in seven sheng of clear wine and eight of water down to three sheng. The liquid is strained, the gelatin melted into it, and one sheng is taken warm three times a day.[1]
In Cheng Wuji's annotated edition the seed is mazi ren (麻子仁) and the ophiopogon half a sheng. His note groups the cannabis seed with the gelatin, the ophiopogon and the rehmannia as the sweet drugs that moisten the channels, nourish the blood and restore the pulse.[2]
In Korea
The Donguibogam of 1613 has the decoction as gugamchotang (灸甘草湯), made up as a single dose. In the gram weights of the Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal it is 7.5 g of roasted liquorice; 5.625 g each of cinnamon twig, cannabis seed (麻仁, main), ophiopogon and dried rehmannia parched in wine; and 3.75 g each of ginseng and beads of donkey-hide gelatin. They are decocted with five slices of fresh ginger and three jujubes in two parts of water to one of wine, reduced by half and strained. Liquor in which the gelatin has been dissolved is added and brought once to the boil, and the decoction is drunk warm three times a day. It is given for the same knotted pulse and palpitations in cold damage.[3]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 張仲景 (Zhang Zhongjing). "卷第四：辨太陽病脈證並治（下）第七". 傷寒論 [Treatise on Cold Damage] (in 中文). Edited by 林億 (Lin Yi) and others (Song ed.). Retrieved 29 October 2026 – via Wikisource.
- ↑ 成無己 (Cheng Wuji). "卷四：辨太陽病脉證并治法下第七". 傷寒論注釋 [Treatise on Cold Damage, annotated] (in 中文) (Siku quanshu ed.). Retrieved 29 October 2026 – via Wikisource.
- ↑ "Gugamchotang(灸甘草湯)A". Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal. Retrieved 29 October 2026.