Formulas that drain dampness
Wu ling san
Five-Ingredient Powder with Poria
- Chinese name
- 五苓散
- Group
- Formulas that drain dampness
- English name
- Poria Five Herbs Formula
- Basic formula
- ✓
Diuretic against oedema, mildly diaphoretic and strengthening for the spleen.
Indications
The most important diuretic formula: for dampness in the spleen, oedema, thirst, headache, nausea and vomiting after drinking water, inability to urinate, acute gastroenteritis with diarrhoea and swollen testicles. The book also mentions ascites from liver cirrhosis and oedema from heart failure.
Ingredients
| Ingredients | Amount |
|---|---|
| Fu ling (poria) | 6–9 g |
| Water plantain (ze xie) | 9–12 g |
| Zhu ling (polyporus) | 6–9 g |
| Cinnamon twig (gui zhi) | 6–9 g |
| Bai zhu (white atractylodes) | 6–9 g |
- Tongue
- white and moist
- Pulse
- superficial and slippery
Variations
- For jaundice, blood in the urine or hepatitis: add yin chen hao.
- For lupus of the spleen and kidney yang deficiency type, the book describes a variant with xian mao, epimedium, huang qi, Chinese dodder seed and ginseng.