Formulas · Warm the Interior 溫裏 · Junggyeong (仲景)
Cinnamon Twig and Licorice Decoction
Gyeji-gamcho-tang
한글 계지감초탕 · Pinyin Gui Zhi Gan Cao Tang
桂枝甘草湯
The Shanghanlun's 桂枝甘草湯, given for palpitations following excessive sweating.
Composition 構成
Total 24 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
- Treats palpitations in which the patient wishes to press on the chest
- Warms the heart yang
Indications 主治
Pattern-based
- Heart yang vacuity with palpitations
- Heart qi vacuity after sweating
Biomedical correlates
- Palpitations after fluid loss
- Postural tachycardia
Source text 原文
Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑
治心悸ㆍ欲得按. 桂枝 四錢, 甘草(灸) 二錢. 右剉, 作一貼, 水煎服. 《仲景》
Translation
Treats palpitations in which the patient wishes to press on the chest. Cinnamon twig, 4 don; honey-roasted licorice, 2 don. Cut up, make one packet and decoct in water. — Junggyeong 仲景 (Donguibogam · Han)
Clinical commentary 臨床
Two drugs and the diagnosis rests on a gesture: the patient wants to press his hand on his chest. Zhongjing uses that sign to mark a palpitation of vacuity rather than of repletion — pressure relieves what is empty and aggravates what is full — and it remains a quick and reliable discrimination at the bedside. Cinnamon twig with licorice is the irreducible pair for the heart yang, and the formula is the base from which the whole cinnamon-twig family for palpitations is built. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.