🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Cold
This condition is primarily characterized by nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, headache, cough, fever, and aversion to cold. Traditional Chinese Medicine considers this an external pathogenic disease, belonging to exterior patterns; its cause lies in the body's defensive barrier being weak and resistance low, coupled with sudden climate changes and improper temperature regulation, allowing external pathogens to invade and cause colds. Western medicine believes this disease is mainly caused by viruses, though bacteria can also be responsible, with the primary site of inflammation in the nose and throat. The following are commonly used secret and proven formulas:
[Formula One]
30 grams of cilantro, 10 grams of soybeans, a small amount of salt. Wash cilantro and soybeans. First, put soybeans in a pot, add appropriate water, boil for 15 minutes, then add cilantro and boil for another 15 minutes, strain and drink the soup, consume in one or several doses. Add a little salt for flavor when drinking. Take one dose daily, twice daily.
This formula disperses wind-cold, suitable for wind-cold colds.
[Formula Two]
2 blocks of tofu, 6 grams of fermented soybeans, 3 green onions. First, boil tofu and fermented soybeans with one bowl of water until reduced to half a bowl, then add green onions, boil until bubbling, consume while hot.
This formula disperses wind-cold, suitable for wind-cold colds.
[Formula Three]
3 slices of ginger, 15 grams of rock sugar. Wash and slice ginger, place in a porcelain cup, pour boiling water, cover and steep for 5 minutes. Add rock sugar, drink immediately while hot, then lie down and cover with a quilt to induce sweating.
This formula expels cold and induces sweating, suitable for wind-cold colds.
[Formula Four]
5–10 grams of Schizonepeta, 3–5 grams of mint, 5–10 grams of fermented soybean, 50–100 grams of glutinous rice. First, boil Schizonepeta, mint, and fermented soybean for 5 minutes, extract the juice, remove residue. Prepare porridge with glutinous rice, when nearly done, add the medicine juice, cook together into a thin porridge. Usually one course lasts 2–3 days, take twice daily, warm and eat.
This formula applies to all types of colds.
[Formula Five]
10 grams each of Schizonepeta and Saposhnikovia, 9 grams of mulberry leaf, 12 grams of fermented soybean, 10 grams each of Notopterygium and Dictamnus, 6 grams each of Peucedanum and tangerine peel, 6 grams of mint (added last), 2 slices of fresh ginger, 10 grams of apricot kernel, 9 grams of perilla leaf, 6 grams of scorched Citrus aurantium. Decoct and take orally, one dose daily, twice daily.
This formula is Shi Wenming's prescription, suitable for wind-cold colds caused by external wind-cold.
[Formula Six]
10 grams of black tea, 7 walnuts, 10 grams of ginger. Roast black tea until charred, add walnuts and ginger, add appropriate water, decoct and take, one dose daily.
This formula is suitable for wind-cold colds.
[Formula Seven]
6 grams each of mulberry leaf and chrysanthemum, 30 grams each of light bamboo leaf and white rush root, 3 grams of mint. Boil all herbs with boiling water for 10 minutes, sip frequently, or cool and drink as a beverage in large quantities, take continuously for 2–3 days.
This formula disperses wind-heat, suitable for colds caused by external wind-heat.
[Formula Eight]
500 grams of frost mulberry leaf. Wash and chop the mulberry leaves, add water, boil, distill, collect saturated aromatic water. Take 30 ml each time, twice daily.
This formula dispels wind and clears heat, suitable for wind-heat colds.
[Formula Nine]
10 grams of hawthorn, 30 grams of honeysuckle, 250 grams of honey. Place hawthorn and honeysuckle in a clay pot, add appropriate water, bring to boil over high heat, after 3 minutes filter the liquid into a bowl. Add water again to the residue, decoct once more, filter out the liquid, combine both batches, add honey, stir evenly. This medicine can be consumed anytime.
This formula has certain efficacy for wind-heat colds.
[Formula Ten]
15–20 grams of fermented soybean, 3–6 grams of Schizonepeta, 1–2 grams of ephedra, 20–30 grams of green onion roots, 3 grams of gardenia, 60–90 grams of raw gypsum powder, 3 slices of ginger, 2 green onion whites, 100 grams of glutinous rice. First, decoct all herbs together in a clay pot, do not boil too long—boil for 5–10 minutes after boiling, remove residue, add glutinous rice, cook into a thin porridge. Stop taking once sweating and fever subside.
This formula is suitable for wind-heat colds with persistent high fever and urgent lung heat with panting.
[Formula Eleven]
Take some seedless watermelon flesh, set aside. Take some tomatoes, wash, blanch briefly in boiling water to remove skin and seeds. Wrap watermelon flesh and tomato meat separately in clean gauze, squeeze out juice, mix equal amounts of watermelon juice and tomato juice, drink like hot water, in appropriate quantity.
This formula clears heat and dampness, suitable for colds during summer caused by summer heat and dampness.
[Formula Twelve]
10 grams of costus root, 5 grams of magnolia bark, cut with scissors, 5 grams of roasted white hyacinth bean crushed. Place all in a thermos, pour boiling water, cover and steep for 1 hour, drink frequently as tea, twice daily. This formula dispels summer heat, resolves dampness, and harmonizes the stomach, suitable for summer dampness invasion.
[Formula Thirteen]
1000 grams each of perilla leaf, mint leaf, eupatorium leaf, agastache, starch 200 grams, appropriate amount of saccharin. Grind all herbs into fine powder, pass through a 60-mesh sieve. Dissolve saccharin in 100 ml warm water, mix with starch. Add 200 ml cold water to starch, stir into a paste, then add 2000 ml boiling water, stir rapidly into a paste, mix with herb powder, mold into tea blocks, dry in sun or oven. Each block weighs 10 grams. Boil and drink as tea, 1–2 blocks each time, twice to three times daily.
This formula is suitable for heatstroke colds.
[Formula Fourteen]
10 grams of agastache, 5 grams of ginger, appropriate amount of rock sugar. Decoct the first two ingredients, extract juice, mix with rock sugar. One dose daily, divided into 2–3 servings.
This formula transforms dampness, harmonizes the middle energizer, releases exterior and dispels cold, suitable for cases where summer dampness is predominant.
[Formula Fifteen]
30 grams of floating plant, 24 grams of honey. Grind floating plant into fine powder, mix with honey to form pills. Take 6 grams twice daily.
This formula is used for general colds.
[Formula Sixteen]
30 grams of millet. Roast until yellow, decoct and drink in one dose, cover up and induce slight sweating.
This formula is suitable for postpartum colds.
[Formula Seventeen]
30 grams of lychee flesh, appropriate amount of rice wine. Warm the lychee flesh with wine, drink while hot.
This formula is suitable for qi-deficient colds.
[Formula Eighteen]
3 each of ephedra, licorice, and big sea.
Decoct with boiling water, extract juice, take twice daily.
This formula is suitable for colds with hoarseness.
[Formula Nineteen]
50 grams each of Banlangen and raw rehmannia, 20 grams each of Ophiopogon, Anemarrhena, and mulberry leaf, 15 grams each of platycodon and cicada slough. Decoct and take orally, one dose daily, three times daily.
This formula nourishes yin and clears heat, suitable for yin deficiency with exterior pathogenic invasion.
[Formula Twenty]
30 grams each of honeysuckle, forsythia, and chrysanthemum, 20 grams of mulberry leaf, 15 grams of mint, 10 grams of bupleurum, 20 grams of reed rhizome, 20–30 grams each of raw gypsum and talc, 15 grams each of licorice, Scutellaria, and cicada slough. First, decoct raw gypsum for 20–30 minutes, then decoct all other herbs, decocated and take orally, once in the morning and once in the evening.
This formula is a famous TCM doctor Liu Shaoxun's proven formula from Liaoning, functions to clear heat and toxins, release exterior with coolness, suitable for epidemic flu, viral flu, high fever, low fever, can be taken.
[Formula Twenty-One]
Each 100 grams of ephedra, perilla leaf, kudzu root, saposhnikovia, angelica, cinnamon twig, platycodon, apricot kernel, tangerine peel, and fresh ginger. Made into granules, each packet 8 grams, oral. Adults take one packet each time, three times daily; children adjust dosage, dissolve in boiling water and take.
This formula is a treatment for wind-cold colds developed by Benxi No. 3 Pharmaceutical Factory, Liaoning.
[Formula Twenty-Two]
12 grams of green onion roots, 3 grams each of perilla seed, apricot kernel, peony root, ligusticum, 2 grams each of dried ginger and licorice. Boil twice, mix the decoction, divide into three servings daily.
This formula comes from "Popular Formulas," suitable for early stages of epidemic flu.
[Formula Twenty-Three]
500 grams of white magnolia leaf, add 1000 ml water, distill twice to obtain 250 ml distillate. Take 20 ml each time, one dose, 10 days as one course.
This formula comes from "New Medical Communications," suitable for cold patients.
[Formula Twenty-Four]
30 grams of mint, 500 grams of white sugar, appropriate amount of water. Place white sugar in an aluminum pot, add a little water, simmer over low heat until thick, add mint powder, stir well, continue cooking until lifting with a spatula forms threads without sticking to hands, stop heating. Pour the sugar onto a large enamel tray coated with edible oil, cool slightly, cut into strips, then cut into about 100 pieces.
Regularly chew and consume, has the effect of releasing wind-heat, clearing the throat, suitable for treating wind-heat colds, headache, red eyes, sore throat.
This formula comes from "Simple Single Formulas," originally used for "wind-heat," a commonly used formula for treating various wind-heat conditions. Wind-heat invades the lung and pores, causing fever and aversion to wind; the throat is the passage of the lung, lung heat injures body fluids, hence thirst and sore throat. The method is to disperse wind and clear heat. In this formula, mint disperses exterior wind, clears heat, and induces sweating; white sugar clears heat and relieves sore throat. Together they form a formula that disperses wind-heat and clears the throat. Mint in small amounts also has the effect of relieving liver depression. As in Xiao Yao San, mint is used less than one qian for this purpose. Thus, mint candy is also suitable for liver depression and qi stagnation.
This formula aims to disperse wind-heat, with a cooling nature; not suitable for those with wind-cold exterior invasion.
[Formula Twenty-Five]
30 grams of dried ginger, 15 grams of fermented soybean, 250 grams of maltose, appropriate amount of water. Place dried ginger and fermented soybean in a stainless steel pot, add appropriate water, decoct. Extract decoction every 30 minutes, add water and decoct again. Collect two batches of decoction, combine, simmer over low heat until thick, add maltose, stir well, continue cooking until the liquid no longer sticks to hands, stop heating. Stir while hot to turn the sugar milky white, pour onto an oiled stone slab or enamel tray, cool slightly, cut into strips, then cut into small pieces.
This formula has the effect of releasing exterior and penetrating pathogenic factors, warming the lungs and transforming phlegm. Regular consumption can treat fever, chills, cough, abundant clear phlegm, chest tightness, irritability due to external pathogenic or lung cold.
This formula comes from "Supplement to the Hand Mirror," the name was added later. Originally used for "sudden cough," a commonly used formula for treating cough. Cold invades the lung, impairing its descending function, hence persistent cough. Fermented soybean is pungent-warm, disperses exterior and relieves annoyance; dried ginger warms the lung and transforms phlegm; maltose warms the center and supplements deficiency. Together, they achieve the effect of releasing exterior pathogens and relieving annoyance externally, warming the center and transforming phlegm internally, supplementing deficiency and supporting the body. Especially suitable for those with external wind-cold or lung cold cough.
Not suitable for those with wind-heat exterior invasion or lung heat cough and wheezing.
[Formula Twenty-Six]
100 grams of ligusticum, 200 grams of schizonepeta spike. Grind both herbs into coarse powder, add water, boil, distill, collect 1000 ml of saturated aromatic water. Take 20 ml each time, three times daily.
This formula comes from "Compilation of Chinese Medicine Preparations," suitable for wind-cold colds.
[Formula Twenty-Seven]
Ground white pepper, appropriate amount of green onion. Boil a bowl of hot noodle soup, add green onion and pepper powder, mix well, eat while hot, cover up and lie down; sweating cures the condition.
This formula warms and releases exterior, eliminates phlegm, and detoxifies, suitable for colds due to wind invasion.
[Formula Twenty-Eight]
One cabbage root (knob), 15 grams of sugar. Wash cabbage root, slice, add one bowl of water, boil, then add sugar, take twice daily.
This formula clears heat and detoxifies, suitable for epidemic flu.
[Formula Twenty-Nine]
50 grams of roadside thistle, 2 eggs. Boil together until eggs are cooked, remove residue, drink the broth.
This formula clears heat, disperses wind, supports the body, and nourishes yin, suitable for wind-heat colds.
[Formula Thirty]
3 grams of mirabilite, 60 ml of rice wine, 3 eggs. Crack eggs, mix with mirabilite and rice wine, stir until mirabilite dissolves, drink in one dose.
This formula removes stagnation and heat, resolves warm pathogens, suitable for those with epidemic flu.
[Formula Thirty-One]
10 grams of Liu Yi San, 3 grams of mint. First decoct Liu Yi San, extract one cup of juice, add mint shortly before finishing, boil briefly, strain and drink.
This formula is suitable for colds caused by summer-dampness.
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