Huangqin Huashi Decoction: A Common Formula for Summer Damp-Heat and Cancer Fever and Pain

The Wenbing Tiaobian (Systematic Identification of Warm Diseases) contains a formula called Huangqin Huashi Tang, composed of "Scutellaria (Huangqin) three qian, talc (Huashi) three qian, Poria peel (Fulingpi) three qian, areca peel (Dafupi) two qian, white cardamom seed (Baikouren) one qian, Tetrapanax pith (Tongcao) one qian, Polyporus (Zhuling) three qian." Here one qian can be converted to about 3 g or 5 g today. The formula treats "slow pulse and body pain, pale-yellow slippery tongue, thirst but little desire to drink, or no thirst at all, fever resolving with sweating and then returning, internally unable to transport the dampness of water and grain, and externally again contracting seasonal dampness."

This is a common formula for treating summer damp-heat syndrome. It can be used for fever from summer externally-contracted warm disease, where dampness and heat are intertwined like oil poured over noodles—sticky and hard to resolve; if the dampness is not expelled, the heat is hard to clear. Hence ordinary fever-reducing drugs may lower the fever for a moment, but it quickly returns.

TCM says, "if sweating does not resolve the illness, it is either wind or dampness." Ordinary externally-contracted warm diseases improve after sweating, but taiyang wind-stroke and damp-heat do not improve even after sweating. The features of taiyang wind-stroke are spontaneous sweating, aversion to wind and aversion to cold; it mostly occurs in winter and early spring and requires formulas of the Guizhi Tang series. The damp-heat syndrome, by contrast, features body pain and heaviness, no aversion to wind or cold, thirst, and a watery, slippery tongue coating; it mostly appears in the long summer. In the long-summer season the air is humid, and fever readily turns into damp-heat.

In Huangqin Huashi Tang, Huangqin clears heat and dries dampness; Zhuling, Fulingpi, Huashi and Tongcao are all diuretic edema-relieving herbs; Baikouren and Dafupi move qi and resolve dampness. Combined, these herbs produce an excellent heat-clearing and dampness-resolving effect.

This formula not only treats common externally-contracted fever but can also reduce cancer fever and relieve cancer pain. However, the patient must present the above-mentioned indications—"slow pulse and body pain, pale-yellow slippery tongue, thirst with little drinking or no thirst, fever resolving with sweating and then returning." Common accompanying signs include lower-limb edema and excess salivation; without these signs, using the formula will not work well.