杏苏散

• Actions: Gently disperses cool-dryness, regulates the Lung and resolves phlegm.
• Core pathomechanism: External contraction of cool-dryness with loss of Lung dispersing and descending function. Cool-dryness pathogens invade externally and bind the exterior, causing failure of Lung qi to disperse; fluids fail to be distributed and congeal into phlegm, which lodges in the Lung system.

1. When it is used

This formula is the representative formula for external contraction of cool-dryness (i.e., a mild exterior wind-cold pattern accompanied by signs of dryness). Its composition combines acrid-warm and sweet-moistening herbs together, focusing on dispersing exterior pathogens while warming and moistening the Lung metal.

2. Pattern and presentation

Main symptoms:

• Aversion to cold without sweating, slight headache.
• Cough with thin phlegm, nasal congestion, dry throat.

General and accompanying symptoms:

• Thin white tongue coating.

3. Tongue and pulse

• Tongue: Thin, white, and dry coating.
• Pulse: Wiry or floating.

4. Granule conversion and dose

Calculation of the total raw herb weight of the original formula (excluding ginger and jujube):

Su Ye (perilla leaf) 6 g + Xing Ren (apricot seed) 9 g + Ban Xia (pinellia rhizome) 6 g + Fu Ling (poria) 6 g + Qian Hu (hogfennel root) 6 g + Jie Geng (platycodon root) 6 g + Zhi Ke (bitter orange) 6 g + Chen Pi (aged tangerine peel) 6 g + Zhi Gan Cao (honey-fried licorice root) 3 g = 54 g.