Formulas · Tonify Qi 補氣 · Geumgwe Yoryak (金匱要略)

Fresh Ginger and Licorice Decoction

Saengganggamcho-tang

한글 생강감초탕 · Pinyin Sheng Jiang Gan Cao Tang

生薑甘草湯

Composition 構成

Saenggang Sheng Jiang
生薑 생강 · Fresh Ginger

20 g
Chief 君
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

12 g
Chief 君

honey-roasted
Insam Ren Shen
人蔘 인삼 · Ginseng

8 g
Deputy 臣
Daejo Da Zao
大棗 대조 · Jujube

—
Envoy 使

five fruits

Total g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 1 ingredient 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 wilting lung with cough and the spitting of frothy saliva

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Wilting lung with frothy spittle, the lung qi vacuous and cold

Biomedical correlates

Bronchiectasis with copious sputum

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治肺痿咳吐涎沫. 生薑五錢, 人參二錢, 甘草(灸) 三錢, 大棗五枚. 右剉, 作一貼, 水煎服, 日二. 《仲景》

Translation

Treats wilting lung with cough and the spitting of frothy saliva. Fresh ginger, 5 don; ginseng, 2 don; honey-roasted licorice, 3 don; jujube, five fruits. Cut up, make one packet, decoct in water and take twice a day. — Junggyeong 仲景 (Donguibogam · Haesu)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Four materials, all of them warming and sweet, and not one of them aimed at the cough. That is the point of the 肺痿 section: the lung has been dried out and wasted by loss of fluid — the Jingui lists sweating, vomiting, wasting-thirst, frequent urination and over-purging as the ways it happens — and what the patient needs is to be built up rather than cleared out. The frothy saliva the formula is named for is the sign the chapter watches. Its companion, Gamchogeongang-tang, is for the case where there is froth but no cough, which the Jingui reads as cold in the lung rather than dryness. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.