A Diuretic Formula: “Shengcha Powder” (Raw Tea Powder)

“Shengcha Powder” (Raw Tea Powder) appears in Jifeng Pujifang. It contains equal parts of curcuma zedoaria (Ezhu), fennel (Huixiang), and raw tea (Shengcha). Grind the herbs together into a fine powder; take 2 qian (6 g) each time, and decoct with 150 ml water, 6 cm of scallion white, and a pinch of salt down to 100 ml. Take on an empty stomach, including the dregs.

This powder breaks stasis and moves qi, warms the kidney and promotes urination. It addresses sudden urinary retention due to kidney-yang deficiency with blood stasis and qi stagnation. The formula is interestingly compact: zedoaria activates blood and resolves stasis; fennel and scallion white warm yang and unblock the collaterals; together they treat difficulty urinating caused by blood stasis, cold congelation, and failure of qi transformation. Raw tea—that is, tea itself—has a mild diuretic effect, and among teas green tea works best as a diuretic.

This formula somewhat resembles the rationale of Wuling Powder, but differs: its zedoaria has a strong blood-activating, stasis-resolving effect, and the combination of zedoaria, scallion, and fennel has anticoagulant action. Such sudden urinary retention may relate to prostate enlargement or to ascites from hepatic portal hypertension—conditions that in Chinese medicine all belong to blood stasis. The chief herbs here do not directly diurese; rather, they improve circulation, and once circulation improves, the patient’s urinary obstruction is resolved at its root.

Yet using this formula for sudden urinary retention (the Chinese-medicine condition called longbi, “retention of urine”) may not give lasting benefit. Adding motherwort (Yimucao) may improve the result.