Formulas · Tonify Qi 補氣 · Injae Jikji (仁齋直指方)

Ginseng and Walnut Decoction

Insamhodo-tang

한글 인삼호도탕 · Pinyin Ren Shen Hu Tao Tang

人參胡桃湯

Named in the Cough chapter's 單方 list as though it were two formulas, 人參胡桃湯 and 參桃湯; the ginseng entry gives the second as its alternative name.

Composition 構成

Insam Ren Shen
人蔘 인삼 · Ginseng

—
Chief 君

a piece an inch long
Hodoyuk Hu Tao Rou
胡桃肉 호도육 · Walnut Flesh

—
Deputy 臣

two walnuts, shelled but with the skins left on
Saenggang Sheng Jiang
生薑 생강 · Fresh Ginger

—
Envoy 使

five slices

Total g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 3 ingredients measured by count or used as a vehicle, shown as —.

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 panting from qi vacuity
Settles the panting and astringes the lung

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Qi vacuity panting
Lung qi not gathered in

Biomedical correlates

Exertional breathlessness in chronic lung disease

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治氣虛喘. 人參一寸ㆍ胡桃二箇(去殼不去皮). 右剉, 入薑五, 水煎服, 名人參胡桃湯, 一名參桃湯. 盖人參定喘, 帶皮胡桃歛肺也. 《直指》

Translation

Treats panting from qi vacuity. Ginseng, one inch, and two walnuts with the shells removed but not the skins. Cut them up, add five slices of ginger and decoct in water. It is called Ginseng and Walnut Decoction, and also Ginseng and Peach Decoction. For ginseng settles the panting and walnut with its skin astringes the lung. — Jikji 直指 (Donguibogam · Haesu)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Two drugs and a slice of ginger, and the reasoning is given in the text itself: ginseng settles the panting, the walnut skin astringes the lung. The shell is removed and the thin brown skin left on, which is where the astringency is said to lie — the same instruction as the chapter's 單方 entry on walnut. Of the chapter's many panting formulas this is the one a patient could make at home, and the indication is the mild chronic one: breathlessness on exertion in a depleted patient rather than an acute attack. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.