瓜蒂散

Name

Powder of Musk-melon Pedicel

Source

The book Shang Han Lun

Ingredients

• Gua Di (Pedicellus Melo) 4 g,
• Chi Xiao Dou (Semen Phaseoli) 4 g,
• Dan Dou Chi (Semen Sojae Preparatum) 9 g.

Explanation

Gua Di: The Principal drug, being bitter in flavor and cold in nature, playing an active part in causing vomiting of sputum, saliva and stagnated food.

Chi Xiao Dou: Being sour in flavor, removing dampness, restlessness and fullness, working together with Gua Di to combine the sour and bitter tastes and cause vomiting.

Dou Chi: Taken in the form of decoction to expel pathogenic factors in the chest, working compatibly with Chi Xiao Dou to regulate the stomach-Qi and protect vital Qi from being impaired.

Effect

Causing vomiting of phlegm, saliva and stagnated food.

Indications

Syndrome due to retention of phlegm, saliva and indigested food in the chest and epigastrium, marked by fullness in the chest, heartburn, nervousness, attack of upward flow of Qi on the throat which leads to difficult breathing, and slight floating of Cun pulse; including such disorders with the above symptoms as mistaking toxic material, retention of indigested food in the stomach, etc.

Administration

Gua Di is decocted until it looks yellow and then dried and ground together with Chi Xiao Dou into fine powder. 9 g of Dou Chi is decocted in water for the decoction. 1-3 g of the powder is taken with the decoction each time.

Because Gua Di is bitter, cold and poisonous. this prescription is not allowed to be used for the weak. When stagnated food has entered the intestines or phlegm and saliva are not in the chest and diaphram, this prescription is also inhibited.