Guilong Chuanke Ling, a Common Autumn–Winter Chinese Patent Medicine for Resolving Phlegm, Stopping Cough and Relieving Wheezing
Guilong Chuanke Ling is a modern Chinese patent medicine preparation. Some manufacturers make it as Guilong Chuanke Ling capsules, others as tablets; both dosage forms are available in pharmacies or online drugstores. They have the same composition and the same effects, and patients may choose according to personal preference.
The formula is recorded in Part I of the 2005 edition of the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China. Its composition is: guizhi (Cinnamomi Ramulus), longgu (Fossilia Ossis Mastodi), baishao (Paeonia Lactiflora Radix Alba), shengjiang (Zingiberis Rhizoma Recens), dazao (Jujubae Fructus), zhigancao (Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma Praeparata cum Melle), muli (Ostreae Concha), huanglian (Coptidis Rhizoma), fabanxia (processed Pinelliae Rhizoma), gualoupí (Trichosanthis Pericarpium), and kuxingren (Armeniacae Semen Amarum), eleven herbs in all. Its action is to stop cough and resolve phlegm, downbear qi and calm wheezing; it is indicated for cough, panting and copious sputum caused by external contraction of wind-cold and phlegm-damp obstructing the lung. It is now commonly used for bronchitis, asthma or COPD triggered in autumn and winter after an external contraction of wind-cold.
This formula is a modification of Guizhi Longgu Muli Tang (Cinnamon Twig, Dragon Bone and Oyster Shell Decoction), to which huanglian, fabanxia, gualoupí and kuxingren have been added. Guizhi Longgu Muli Tang itself harmonizes the construction and defense and seculates essence and subdues yang; it is formed by adding longgu and muli to Guizhi Tang.
Guizhi Tang is the first formula in the Treatise on Cold Damage (Shanghan Lun) and the representative formula for treating taiyang wind-stroke. Its indications include taiyang wind-stroke syndrome with fever or absence of fever, aversion to cold and wind, body pain or absence thereof, nasal discharge or absence thereof, spontaneous or night sweating, and a floating pulse. Adding longgu and muli gives a yang-subduing, securing and astringing action, able to simultaneously treat nocturnal emission, palpitations, enuresis and dizziness. Huanglian clears heat; modern pharmacology shows broad-spectrum antimicrobial action. Fabanxia and gualoupí are common herbs for expelling phlegm and stopping cough—one warming, one cooling, mutually complementary. Xingren is a common herb for stopping cough and calming wheezing.
In sum, the cough and wheezing this formula treats belongs to the wind-cold pattern; using it for wind-heat cough would backfire. Wind-cold cough and wheezing are common in autumn and winter, when the weather is cold and careless daily living or a constitutionally weak body easily invites wind-cold, which, given pre-existing respiratory disease, readily flares it. People with long-standing chronic respiratory disease, after contracting wind-cold, usually quickly develop a mixed cold-heat pattern; hence the medication should, like Xiao Chaihu Tang or Chaihu Guizhi Tang, address both dispelling cold and clearing heat. This formula is therefore a composite using both cold and hot herbs. Only by pattern differentiation along these lines can the formula's effects be fully realized.