Small Formulas Taken as Tea Substitutes Are a Good Method of Treating Disease in TCM
A patient was very interested to read in my case records that I often have patients brew Chinese medicinal herbs with boiling water and drink them as tea, and he asked me why I use this method. In fact, traditional Chinese medicine has always had a tradition of using small formulas as tea substitutes; Academician Chen Keji even edited a book titled Qinggong Daicha Yin Jinghua (Essentials of Qing-Court Tea-Substitute Prescriptions), specifically introducing the various tea-substitute formulas used by the imperial physicians of the Qing court. It is rich in content and covers a great many disease categories.
Traditional Chinese medicine originated from the medicinal experience of the folk. I grew up in the countryside and saw many folk tea-substitute remedies from childhood. For instance, farmers in my hometown all know that brewing Jinyinhua (honeysuckle) and Jinyinhua Teng (honeysuckle vine) in water as a summer tea has a fire-downbearing effect. The elders at home often used this to treat minor ailments such as mouth ulcers and facial erysipelas. Some elders also brewed Yuxingcao (Houttuynia) or Huangqin (Scutellaria) as tea to treat respiratory diseases.
These experiences are all of great practical value, but with the development of modern medicine, such medicinal teas have gradually ceased to be valued. Merchants, however, have profited from these folk experiences: the rural practice of brewing honeysuckle and honeysuckle vine has been replaced by modern commercial drinks like honeysuckle syrup. But it is not necessarily true that honeysuckle syrup is better or more harmless than honeysuckle tea; to cater to modern tastes, the syrup adds a great deal of sugar, and that sugar is not good for people's health.
Chinese medicinal tea substitutes are far more convenient than decocting raw herbal pieces, and cheaper too, because the formulas used are generally small and the doses tiny, so their side effects are much smaller than ordinary herbal decoctions—yet their efficacy is no worse than that of decoctions or pills.
Generally, tea substitutes mainly use aromatic flowers or leaves, such as Jinyinhua (honeysuckle), Meiguihua (rose), Yuejihua (China rose flower), Huaihua (Sophora flower), Zisuye (perilla leaf), and Bohe (mint), because the active constituents of these herbs are readily extracted by brewing with boiling water. Sometimes I myself use small formulas made from root and rhizome herbs as tea substitutes. For example, I often use Shaoyao Gancao Tang as a tea (Shaoyao 3 g, Gancao 3 g, brewed) for spasmodic pain; use Su Lian Yin (Zisu 0.3 g, Huanglian 0.6 g, brewed) for acute gastroenteritis; use Jiegeng Paiyong Tang (Jiegeng 1–3 g, Gancao 1–3 g, brewed) to expel phlegm and stop cough; and use Gouteng Bohe Yin (Gouteng 3–5 hooks, Bohe 3–5 leaves) for dry cough and to lower blood pressure and blood sugar. These small tea-substitute formulas are all wonderfully useful: convenient, simple, and inexpensive.
Many historical empirical formulas can serve as tea-substitute prescriptions. Shi Jinmo was in the habit of using paired herbs, and his disciples even compiled a book called Shi Jinmo Duiyao (Shi Jinmo's Paired Herbs). The herb pairs collected in that book are mostly small formulas with outstanding historical efficacy, and basically all of them can be used as tea-substitute formulas, though the dose should be reduced when brewing as tea. Most herbs should not exceed 3 g when used to make tea. Patients can also adjust the dose to their own taste; if the dose is too large and the taste unpleasant, simply reduce it appropriately.
Tea-substitute herbs can also be combined with tea leaves; most of the Qing-court tea substitutes were used together with tea, which greatly improves the taste. Different people have different preferences for tea, so when pairing tea with the substitute, one can choose according to the patient's taste or according to the tea's properties. For example, fermented teas are gentler on the stomach, so patients with weak stomachs should choose a fermented tea. Green tea has a stronger diuretic effect, so those with difficult urination may pair green tea—incidentally, many TCM formulas for difficult urination also add some green tea. I once used a Longding tea from Kaihua, Zhejiang, whose diuretic effect was far stronger than that of ordinary diuretic herbs; those with frequent urination should avoid such strongly diuretic teas. Some teas, such as Enshi vine tea, have a certain cough-suppressing effect and can also relieve the frequent and painful urination of prostatitis, so patients with such problems may consider pairing their herbs with vine tea.
So when tea substitutes are used well, their applications are broad, and patients like them all the more.