The following are six TCM concoctions to help improve people's
bodily defence against SARS, as suggested by the State
Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Prescription 1
Invigorating the qi or the vital energy, eliminating dampness to
alleviate water retention and reducing intense heat and removing
toxins or virulent heat.
Ingredients:
(All in grammes)
Membranous milkvetch root (huangqi) 10g; whiteflower patrinia herb
(baijiangcao) 15g; coix seed (yiyiren) 15g; platycodon root
(jigeng) 6g; raw licorice root (sheng gancao) 3g
Prescription 2
Functions: Reducing intense heat, removing toxins or
virulent heat, and improving water retention.
Ingredients:
Heartleaf houttuynia herb (yuxingcao) 15g; wild chrysanthemum (wild
juhua) 6g; virgate wormwood herb (yinchen) 15g; fortune eupatorium
(peilan) 10g; tsaoko amomum fruit (caoguo) 3g
Prescription 3
Functions: Guarding against pathogenic wind, dispersing
exopathogens from superficies of the body, reducing intense heat
and removing toxins.
Ingredients:
Mongolian dandelion (pugongying) 15g; flower of Chinese globeflower
(jinlianhua) 6g; indigowoad leaf (daqingye) 10g; kudzuvine root
(gegen) 10g; perilla leaf (zisuye) 6g
Prescription 4
Functions: Relieving heat, dispelling pathogenic wind and
dispersing viruses from the body.
Ingredients:
Reed roots (lugen) 15g; Japanese honeysuckle (yinhua) 10g; weeping
forsythiae capsule (lianqiao) 10g; peppermint (bohe) 6g; raw
licorice root (sheng gancao) 5g
Prescription 5
Functions: Invigorating the vital energy, and elevating the
spleen-yang, dissolving dampness and toxin in the body.
Ingredients:
Membranous milkvetch root (huangqi) 10g; largehead atractylodes
roots (baizhu) 6g; divaricate saposhnikovia root (fangfeng) 10g;
swordlike atractylodes (cangzhu) roots 6g; cablin potchouli
(huoxiang) 10g; straight ladybell root (shashen) 10g; Japanese
honeysuckle (yinhua) 10g; cyrtomium roots (guanzhong) 6g
Prescription 6
Functions: Improving the vital energy, draining off the
virulent heat, removing toxin and dissolving dampness.
Ingredients:
Heterophylly false-starwort root (taizishen) 15g; cyrtomium roots
(guanzhong) 6g; Japanese honeysuckle (yinhua) 10g; weeping
forsythiae capsule (lianqiao) 10g; indigowoad leaf (daqingye) 10g;
perilla leaf (zisuye) 6g; kudzuvine root (gegen) 10g; cablin
potchouli (huoxiang) 10g; swordlike atractylodes roots (cangzhu)
6g; fortune eupatorium (peilan) 10g
Preparation:
Soak the herbal ingredients in cold water for half an hour. Then
put them into a traditional Chinese medicinal casserole pot. When
the water boils, simmer the concoction for 20 minutes. Take a cup
of the warm concoction a day.
(China Daily April 30, 2003)