Sheng Cha San: A Good Diuretic Formula
The formula "Sheng Cha San" comes from Jifeng Puji Fang, an empirical formula for treating difficult urination recorded by the Southern Song famous physician Zhang Rui. Sheng Cha San is composed of equal parts of Peng'ezhu (Rhizoma Curcumae), Huixiang (Fructus Foeniculi) and Sheng Cha (raw tea). Grind all the above into a fine powder; each time take 2 qian (6 g) with one zhan of water (about 150 ml), 2 qian of salt (6 g) and one scallion white, decoct to six-tenths (about 100 ml). Take with the dregs on an empty stomach, twice daily.
This formula breaks blood and moves qi, warms the kidney and promotes diuresis. It is especially good for sudden difficulty urinating caused by kidney-yang deficiency with blood stasis and qi stagnation. The salt in this formula is Southern Song coarse salt, not the fine salt of today. If using modern refined salt, such a large amount should not be used; an appropriate 1-3 g suffices.
The Shengji Zonglu also records this formula: "Peng'ezhu (filed, stir-fried), Huaixiangzi (i.e., Huixiang) and tea leaves each half a liang. Pound the three into a powder. Each take a three-qian spatula with one zhan of water, two qian spatula of salt, two cun of scallion white, decoct to six-tenths, and take with the dregs on an empty stomach." The Shengji Zonglu also uses this formula for difficult urination.
Peng'ezhu is Ezhu, the rhizome of Curcuma phaeocaulis, C. kwangsiensis and C. wenyujin (family Zingiberaceae, genus Curcuma). TCM holds that Ezhu moves qi and breaks blood, dissipates accumulation and stops pain. It treats heart-abdominal pain due to blood and qi, dietary stagnation, epigastric and abdominal distending pain, blood-stasis amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, abdominal masses, and traumatic injuries. The Huiyue Yijing records that Ezhu treats "qi-stagnation distension, qi edema and edema"; the Yixue Rumen says Ezhu "can expel water, treat heart-spleen diseases, and break qi glomus." It can be seen that the ancients already recognized that Ezhu also has a diuretic effect.
Modern pharmacological research shows Ezhu has anti-tumor, anti-early-pregnancy, antibacterial, platelet-aggregation-inhibiting and antithrombotic, liver-protecting and kidney-protecting effects. Animal experiments show Ezhu has a relieving effect on acute renal failure; in rabbits given glycerin-saline to induce acute renal failure, intravenous Ezhu injection markedly reduced pathological changes and there were no deaths.
Huixiang is the seed of the common vegetable fennel we eat. Fennel has a strong aroma. TCM holds that fennel is acrid and warm, enters the liver, kidney, bladder and stomach meridians, warms the kidney and liver, moves qi and stops pain, and harmonizes the stomach. It is indicated for cold-hernia abdominal pain, unilateral testicular pain/swelling, epigastric and abdominal cold pain, poor appetite with vomiting and diarrhea, hypochondriac pain, kidney-deficiency back pain, and dysmenorrhea.
Fennel can be used not only for difficult urination but also for frequent urination and enuresis, and even for chyluria. The "Huixiangzi San" in the Puji Fang is a powder made of equal parts of Huixiang, Malinhua (Flos Iridis Chinensis) and Tinglizi (Semen Lepidii); it is a diuretic formula. The Puji Fang also has a formula for nocturia and unquenchable thirst (symptoms much like the polydipsia and polyuria of diabetics): fennel alone, stir-fried with a little salt and ground into powder; this fennel powder is eaten with sticky rice as a food therapy. The Jisheng Chuicui records a formula for urine like greasy oil (i.e., chyluria today), using equal parts of Huixiang and Kulian (Fructus Meliae Toosendan), stir-fried and ground into a fine powder; each take three qian, mixed with warm wine before meals.
Clinical reports show that modern TCM uses 15 g fennel and 3.6 g salt, stir-fried together scorched and ground into powder, then added to one green-shell duck egg and decocted together into a fennel-egg pancake, taken with wine before bed; take for 4 days, then stop for 5 days, as one course. In treating 64 patients with hydrocele of the tunica vaginalis testis and scrotal elephantiasis, 59 patients were cured after 1-7 courses. This is sufficient to prove that fennel has good efficacy against urinary and reproductive system diseases.
Tea also has a diuretic effect, especially unprocessed green tea, which is even more diuretic; we should have felt this ourselves when drinking tea. Scallion white warms yang and disperses cold, with strong and rapid effect; adding it to this formula is to strengthen the action. Like fennel, scallion white treats both frequent urination and difficult urination. My teacher treats infantile enuresis by cutting scallion white into extremely fine powder and applying it externally on the child's navel at bedtime. She sometimes also mixes scallion white with fennel powder and Yizhiren (Fructus Alpiniae Oxyphyllae) powder to treat frequent urination and enuresis in children or adults.
So Sheng Cha San looks simple, but its effects are quite extraordinary.