Yang tonics
Ba wei di huang wan (jin gui shen qi wan)
Eight-Herb Rehmannia Pill
- Chinese name
- 八味地黄丸
- Group
- Yang tonics
- English name
- Rehmannia Eight Combination
- Basic formula
- ✓
Strengthens the yang and warms the kidneys and the lower body.
Indications
For kidney yang deficiency: lower back pain, cold in the legs, impotence, seminal emission, an enlarged prostate, frequent and night-time urination, cough, asthma, persistent diarrhoea, difficult urination and cramps in the lower abdomen. The book gives a long list of conditions, including diabetes, an underactive thyroid, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, nephritis and kidney stones, chronic bronchitis, arthritis, menopausal complaints, eczema and itching in old age, and cataract and glaucoma.
Ingredients
| Ingredients | Amount |
|---|---|
| Prepared aconite (fu zi)toxic | no amount |
| Cinnamon twig (gui zhi) | 6–9 g |
| Prepared rehmannia (shu di huang) | 20–30 g |
| Shan zhu yu (cornus fruit) | 10–15 g |
| Chinese yam (shan yao) | 10–15 g |
| Water plantain (ze xie) | 9–12 g |
| Tree peony bark (mu dan pi) | 6–9 g |
| Fu ling (poria) | 9–12 g |
- Tongue
- pale
- Pulse
- deep, slow and weak
Variations
- For more cold: cinnamon bark instead of cinnamon twig.
- For impotence: add ba ji tian, cistanche, suo yang, epimedium, xian mao, spring onion, garlic chive seed and goji (the book also names actinolite; that is asbestos and does not belong in it).
- For lower back pain: add xu duan and du zhong.
- For high blood pressure: add dragon bone and oyster shell.
- For poor memory or hair loss: add he shou wu.