🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Digestive and Stomach-Enhancing Herbs
Herbs in the digestive and stomach-strengthening category enhance the spleen and stomach's transportation and transformation functions, promote food digestion, and treat conditions caused by dietary accumulation. Since the spleen and stomach are considered the foundation of postnatal health ("life depends on stomach qi, death occurs without it"), regular consumption of such herbs can greatly extend human lifespan.
① Clove
Clove is the flower bud of the Eugenia caryophyllata plant from the Myrtaceae family. It contains essential oil, primarily eugenol, acetyl eugenol, camphorene, clove ketone, piperonal, and various volatile components. Due to its high content of essential oil, it exhibits antibacterial, anthelmintic, and aromatic digestive properties.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), it is considered warm in nature and pungent in taste. Its function is to warm the middle burner and reverse counterflow, warm the kidneys and assist yang. It is used for cold stomach vomiting, hiccups, poor appetite, diarrhea, and impotence caused by kidney yang deficiency.
Dosage: 1–3 grams. Not recommended for those with insufficient gastric fluids or excessive heat in the middle burner.
③ Sandalwood
Sandalwood is the root of species including Aquilaria agallocha, A. bechuanensis, and A. yunnanensis from the Thymelaeaceae family. It contains essential oil with components such as costunolide, sandaracopimarane, sandalwood lactone, sandalwood alcohol, and sandalwood acid. Pharmacological tests show that sandalwood has bronchodilatory effects; directly relaxes intestinal smooth muscle; and inhibits various pathogenic bacteria and fungi.
In TCM, it is warm in nature and pungent and bitter in taste. Its function is to move qi and relieve pain, warm the middle burner and harmonize the stomach. It is used for qi stagnation in the gastrointestinal tract, distension and pain in the chest and abdomen, and pain in the hypochondrium caused by liver-gallbladder damp-heat qi stagnation, as well as vomiting, diarrhea, dysentery, tenesmus, and cold hernia.
Dosage: 1–9 grams. Avoid in cases of lung deficiency with heat, blood dryness with heat, or false fire rising.
③ Nutmeg
Nutmeg is the seed of Myristica fragrans from the Myristicaceae family. It contains multiple essential oils, primarily terpenoids, along with fatty oils rich in myristic acid. The essential oil has antibacterial properties and locally stimulates the gastrointestinal tract, increasing motility and promoting gastric juice secretion, thus enhancing appetite and aiding digestion. Additionally, nutmeg has anti-diarrheal effects.
In TCM, it is warm in nature and pungent in taste. Its function is to warm the spleen and stomach, move qi, aid digestion, and solidify the intestines. It is used for abdominal distension and pain, undigested food retention, poor appetite, vomiting, chronic diarrhea, and cold dysentery due to spleen and stomach deficiency.
Dosage: Generally 2–9 grams. Contraindicated in cases of real heat or fire excess.
④ Atractylodes
Atractylodes is the rhizome of several species including Atractylodes chinensis and A. japonica from the Asteraceae family. It contains essential oil, primarily composed of cineole, atractylodin, and atractylone—terpenoid compounds—as well as carotenoids, vitamin A, and provitamin D1.
In TCM, it is warm in nature and pungent and bitter in taste. Its function is to aromatically transform turbidity, dispel wind and evil odors, dry dampness, and strengthen the spleen. It is used for epigastric fullness, abdominal distension, loose stools, nausea, fatigue, seasonal febrile illness, and excessive phlegm.
Dosage: 6–12 grams.
⑤ Evodia
Evodia is the unripe fruit of Evodia rutaecarpa from the Rutaceae family. It contains essential oil and evodiamine. The essential oil has aromatic digestive properties and can expel wind and inhibit abnormal fermentation in the intestines. Evodiamine also provides bitter digestive stimulation. Clinical evidence shows that grinding Evodia and mixing with vinegar to apply to the soles of both feet lowers blood pressure; applying to the navel treats indigestion, regulates gastrointestinal function, warms the interior, relieves cold, alleviates pain, and aids digestion.
In TCM, it is warm in nature and pungent and bitter in taste. Its function is to warm the middle burner and relieve pain, regulate qi and dry dampness. It is used for epigastric and abdominal distension and pain, vomiting, diarrhea, hiccups, acid regurgitation, headache, hernia pain, and menstrual pain.
Dosage: Generally 1–6 grams. Avoid in cases of dry heat syndrome.
⑥ Magnolia Bark
Magnolia Bark is the bark of Magnolia officinalis from the Magnoliaceae family. It contains magnolol and essential oil. Due to its broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, it effectively inhibits various pathogens and common dermatophytic fungi, making it highly effective for acute enteritis, bacterial dysentery, and amoebic dysentery.
In TCM, it is warm in nature and bitter and pungent in taste. Its function is to move qi, dry dampness, descend counterflow, and relieve asthma. It is used for fullness and pain in the chest and abdomen, hyperemesis, undigested food retention, phlegm-dyspnea, and cold-damp diarrhea and dysentery.
Dosage: Generally 2–6 grams. Use with caution in physically weak individuals and pregnant women.
⑦ Cyperus Rhizome
Cyperus Rhizome is the rhizome of Cyprius rotundus from the Cyperaceae family. It contains essential oil, alkaloids, cardiac glycosides, and flavonoids. Tests confirm that Cyperus Rhizome has significant antipyretic, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory effects, and exhibits inhibitory action against certain pathogens and fungi.
In TCM, it is mild in nature and pungent and slightly bitter in taste. Its function is to regulate qi, relieve depression, relieve pain, and regulate menstruation. It is used for liver-stomach disharmony, qi stagnation, distension and pain in the chest, abdomen, and flanks, phlegm accumulation, and menstrual irregularities.
Dosage: Generally 3–9 grams. Use with caution in cases of qi deficiency and blood dryness.
⑧ Cardamom
Cardamom is the mature fruit or seeds of Amomum villosum or Amomum compactum from the Zingiberaceae family. It contains abundant essential oil and saponins. The essential oil has aromatic digestive properties, stimulates intestinal muscles, promotes gastric juice secretion to aid digestion, and relaxes small intestinal smooth muscle to relieve pain.
In TCM, it is warm in nature and pungent in taste. Its function is to move qi, regulate the center, harmonize the stomach, and invigorate the spleen. It is used for epigastric fullness, abdominal distension, poor appetite, and abdominal pain or diarrhea due to spleen and stomach cold deficiency.
Dosage: Generally 2–5 grams. When used in decoctions, crush before adding; prolonged boiling reduces efficacy.
⑨ Alpinia Oxyphylla Seed
Alpinia Oxyphylla Seed is the seed of Alpinia oxyphylla from the Zingiberaceae family. It contains essential oil, along with shogaol and cardamonin. The essential oil has analgesic, antibacterial, digestive-enhancing, and appetite-stimulating effects, making it an aromatic digestive herb.
In TCM, it is warm in nature and pungent in taste. Its function is to dispel cold, move qi, warm the stomach, dry dampness, strengthen the spleen, and stop vomiting. It is used for epigastric fullness, poor appetite, chest and epigastric pain, reversed qi flow with vomiting, dysphagia, regurgitation, and accumulation of fluid and phlegm.
Dosage: Generally 3–9 grams. Long-term or excessive use may generate spleen heat and deplete vital energy.
⑩ Galangal
Galangal is the rhizome of Alpinia galanga from the Zingiberaceae family. It contains essential oil and flavonoids. Its decoction excites intestinal smooth muscle, while the essential oil has aromatic digestive properties.
In TCM, it is warm in nature and pungent in taste. Its function is to warm the middle burner and stop vomiting, dispel cold and relieve pain. It is used for cold in the spleen and stomach, epigastric and abdominal cold pain, vomiting, diarrhea, food stagnation, cold accumulation, and regurgitation.
Dosage: Generally 2–9 grams.
⑩ Patchouli
Patchouli is the whole herb of Pogostemon cablin or P. patchouli from the Lamiaceae family. It contains multiple essential oils that inhibit excessive intestinal peristalsis and promote gastric juice secretion to aid digestion.
In TCM, it is slightly warm in nature and pungent in taste. Its function is to aromatically resolve dampness, harmonize the center, stop vomiting, and dispel exterior pathogenic factors. It is used for epigastric fullness and discomfort, poor appetite, nausea, fatigue, and weakness caused by impaired central Qi function; additionally, it treats summer-heat dampness, stops vomiting, and addresses external wind-cold combined with internal dampness stagnation.
Dosage: 3–9 grams.