DANG GUI & MORINDA
Er Xian Tang

 

 ‘Two Marvels Decoction’
Source: Traditional Chinese Medical Formulas (Fang Ji Xue, 1975)

Keywords
Menopausal heat, flushing, sweats, mood swings

Ingredients
Epimedium sagittatum (Xian Ling Pi, epimedium)
Curculigo orchioides (Xian Mao, circuligo)
|Morinda officinalis (Ba Ji Tian, morinda)
Anemarrhena aspheloides (Zhi Mu, anemarrhena)
Phellodendron chinensis (Huang Bo, phellodendron)
Angelica sinensis (Dang Gui)
Lycium chinensis (Gou Qi Zi, lycium fruit)
Chrysanthemum morifolium (Ju Hua, chrysanthemum flower)
Eucommia ulmoides (Du Zhong, eucommia
bark)
Viscum coloratum (Sang Ji Sheng, vaecium)

Major therapeutic action
Warms cold, helps weak constitution, clears afternoon fever with additional symptoms of malar flush, night sweats, and a red dry tongue, regulates menstrual difficulties.

 Biomedical action
Regulates the hormones associated with menopause, pituitary gonadotropic stimulant, anti-hypertensive.

Indications
*  This interesting formula, with its unusual combination of very hot and cold herbs, strengthens the kidneys and adrenals while reducing symptoms such as hot flushes, malar flush, feeling of heat in the palms and soles of the feet. The typical presentation suitable for the use of this formula is a patient who experiences feelings of heat in the upper body and cold in the lower body with feelings of lethargy.
*  With the appropriate key symptoms, this formula can be used to treat the symptoms of menopause, menopausal hypertension, amenorrhoea, mental emotional disturbances around menopause, chronic kidney diseases like glomerulonephritis and polycystic kidneys, hyperthyroidism.

Key symptoms for use
*  facial flushing
*  night sweats, hot at night but wakes feeling cold in the morning
*  heat intolerance, or easily hot and easily cold
*  hypertension
*  lower back ache
*  frequent clear urination, nocturia
*  red or pink and swollen tongue
*  weak pulse

Combinations
*  With severe insomnia, add Lóng Gu & Mu Li.
*  With depression, add Ye Jiao Teng & He Huan Pi.
*  For poor memory, add Jiu Jie Chang Pu & Yuan Zhi. 		Dosage
The typical dose is three grams twice daily, before meals. In severe or acute cases, or the early stages of treatment (the first two weeks), a 50-100% increase in dose may be used, then tapered off as the treatment takes effect.

Cautions and contraindications
None noted.
Contraindicated in the early stages of an infection like a cold or flu.

Differentiation
Tian Wang Bu Xin Dan:  For a similar pattern with a predominant emotional or neurotic component. Best
when anxiety, phobias, palpitations and sleep disturbances or chronic mouth ulcers are the presenting problem. This formula lacks the warming aspects of the Er Xian Tang.