Aquilaria (pounds) Prepared Aconite (de-naveled and de-skinned) Fenugreek (soaked in wine, stir-fried) Actinolite (finely ground, water-flown) Fennel (imported, stir-fried) Psoralea (soaked in wine, stir-fried) Nutmeg (wrapped in flour, simmered) Toosendan (steamed, peeled, pitted) Costus Root, each 30 gm Cinnamon (peeled) 15 gm Black Tin (dregs removed) Sulfur (transparent, granulated), each 60 gm

bubble_chart Preparation and Dosage

Place the above ingredients in a black cup or a new iron pot, and prepare the black tin and sulfur sand in the usual method. Remove fire toxins by grinding them into an extremely fine powder. Grind the remaining herbs into a fine powder as well, then mix them all together and grind continuously from morning until evening until a glossy black color is achieved. Form into pills as big as a phoenix tree seed using wine paste. Dry in the shade, then place in a cloth bag and polish until smooth and shiny. Take 30 to 40 pills before meals, administered with ginger-salt soup or jujube soup; for women, administer with vinegar soup and mugwort.

bubble_chart Efficacy

Warm and strengthen the lower origin, calm and absorb floating yang.

bubble_chart Indications

Insufficiency of true yang, failure of the kidney to receive qi, turbid yin rising upwards, upper excess and lower deficiency, phlegm congestion in the chest, abnormal rising of qi causing panting, reversal cold of the limbs, continuous cold sweating, pale tongue with white coating, deep and faint pulse; running-piglet syndrome, qi rushing up from the lower abdomen to the chest, distension and fullness in the chest, hypochondrium, and abdomen with pain, or cold abdominal colic and pain, borborygmus with diarrhea, or in men, impotence with cold sperm, in women, deficiency and cold of the Blood Sea, menstrual irregularities, clear and thin leukorrhea, infertility.

In the formula, black tin is used to suppress floating yang, downbear counterflow and relieve panting, while sulfur warms and tonifies the life gate, warming lower consumptive thirst and cold, serving as the sovereign medicinal. Aconite lateral root and cassia bark warm the kidney and assist yang, returning fire to its origin, causing the deficient yang to return to the kidney. Actinolite, malaytea scurfpea fruit, and common fenugreek seed warm the life gate, dispel cold qi, and can receive the descending deficient yang, acting as minister medicinals. Fennel fruit, aquilaria, and nutmeg warm the middle, regulate qi, downbear counterflow and dispel phlegm, while also warming the kidney, serving as assistant medicinals. However, to prevent excessive warm dryness from the medicinals, a single bitter-cold chinaberry fruit is used, which not only moderates the effects of the other medicinals but also has the function of coursing liver qi. Combined into a formula, it collectively achieves the effects of warming and strengthening original yang, and suppressing and receiving floating yang.