Formulas · Reduce Food Stagnation 消食 · Dongwon (東垣)

Kudzu Flower Sober-Up Decoction

Galhwahaejeong-tang

한글 갈화해정탕  ·  Pinyin Ge Hua Jie Cheng Tang

葛花解酲湯

Powder method: 3 don per dose, stirred into plain boiled water — a slight sweat, and the wine illness departs. The source appends its famous warning: this is used only because one has no choice — how could it be relied upon to drink day after day? Taken frequently, it damages the years Heaven allotted.

Composition 構成

Total 130 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts.

Received this formula from your practitioner? Amounts shown here are classical reference values — granule and prepared products differ. Always follow your prescribed dosage and directions.

Actions 效能

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

  • Wine damage with vomiting phlegm counterflow and trembling hands (飮酒過傷 嘔吐痰逆 手足戰搖)
  • Spirit clouded and disordered with eating reduced
  • The hangover pattern — treated by the two-exits doctrine

Biomedical correlates

  • Alcohol hangover with nausea and tremor
  • Alcohol-related gastritis presentations
  • Post-drinking malaise

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治飮酒過傷, 嘔吐痰逆, 手足戰搖, 精神昏亂, 飮食減少. 葛花ㆍ縮砂ㆍ白豆蔲 各五錢, 靑皮 三錢, 白朮ㆍ乾生薑ㆍ神麴ㆍ澤瀉 各二錢, 人參ㆍ猪苓ㆍ茯苓ㆍ橘皮 各一錢半, 木香 五分. 右爲末, 每三錢, 白湯調下, 得微汗則酒病去矣. 此盖不得已而用之, 豈可恃賴日日飮酒. 若頻服之, 損人天年. 《東垣》

Translation

Treats excessive damage from drinking wine: vomiting with phlegm counterflow, trembling shaking hands and feet, spirit clouded and disordered, and eating reduced. Kudzu flower, amomum, and white cardamom, 5 don each; green tangerine peel 3 don; white atractylodes, dried raw ginger, medicated leaven, and alisma, 2 don each; ginseng, polyporus, poria, and tangerine peel, 1.5 don each; aucklandia 0.5 don. Powder the above; take 3 don each time stirred into plain boiled water — obtain a slight sweat, and the wine illness departs. Yet this is used only because one cannot do otherwise: how could one rely upon it and drink day after day? If taken frequently, it damages a person's Heaven-allotted years. — Dongwon 東垣 (Donguibogam · Naesang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The most celebrated hangover formula in the tradition, and the only one that scolds you in its own text — the kudzu flower opens the sweat door, the seepers open the water door, and Dongyuan closes with a physician's sigh: the cure must not become the enabler. A prescription with a conscience clause. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.

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