Danggui Moyao Wan for Activating Blood and Relieving Pain

Danggui Moyao Wan (Dong Quai-Myrrh Pill) comes from Chen Ziming's Furen Daquan Liangfang (Complete Effective Prescriptions for Women) of the Song dynasty; in the Shengji Zonglu (General Records of Divine Assistance) it is also called "Danggui Wan." The formula consists of 30 g of Angelica sinensis / dong quai (Danggui, cut and toasted), 15 g of myrrh (Moyao, powdered), and 30 g of trogopterus dung (Wulingzhi, filed).

The preparation method is to powder the above medicines, make a paste with vinegar-boiled flour, and form into pills the size of a parasol tree seed. Take 10-20 pills each time, on an empty stomach, washed down with warm wine or ginger decoction. The main action of this formula is to activate blood and relieve pain; it treats women's blood stasis and qi stagnation with stabbing pain in the abdomen and hypochondrium, lack of appetite, tendon spasm and bone bi, numbness of the hands and feet, and pruritus of the skin.

This formula consists of only three medicinals. Among them, Danggui has the actions of activating and nourishing blood, unblocking the channels and relieving pain, and moistening the intestines to free stools; Moyao (myrrh) has the action of dispersing stasis and relieving pain, and dispersing swelling and engendering flesh; Wulingzhi has the action of activating blood and relieving pain, and resolving stasis and engendering flesh. All three are Chinese medicinals that both activate blood and resolve stasis and relieve pain. When the three are used together, the strength of activating blood and relieving pain is considerable.

This formula was originally a gynecological medicine. When women present with blood stasis and qi stagnation, stabbing pain in the abdomen and hypochondrium, lack of appetite, tendon spasm and bone bi, numbness of the hands and feet, and pruritus of the skin, it should be regarded as a mind-body comorbidity, involving both depressive emotion and somatic symptoms.

There is no ready-made proprietary Chinese medicine of this formula for sale; if patients want to use it, they need to process it into pills themselves according to the formula. This formula may also be tried for cancer pain presenting with the above symptoms.