Professor Zhu Chenyu's Guomin Jian (Allergy-Dispersing Decoction) for Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis and Skin Disease

In clinical practice, Professor Zhu Chenyu tried many approaches and eventually created an empirical formula, "Guomin Jian" (Allergy-Dispersing Decoction), which he used to treat seasonal allergic rhinitis and allergic skin diseases (psoriasis, urticaria, pityriasis rosea, acne, allergic dermatitis, etc.) with good results.

Professor Zhu Chenyu's base formula of Guomin Jian: Stir-fried Thorowax root (Yin Chaihu) 10 g, Saposhnikovia (Fangfeng) 10 g, Mume (Wumei) 10 g, Schisandra (Wuweizi) 10 g, Licorice (Gancao) 10 g.

This formula treats allergic rhinitis and various allergic skin diseases. Professor Zhu held that such allergic diseases are mostly caused by exuberant dryness-heat and blood deficiency generating wind.

For allergic skin diseases, Professor Zhu often added to the above formula herbs such as raw Rehmannia (Shengdi), Imperata root (Baimaogen), Moutan bark (Mudanpi), Arnebia root (Zicao), Tribulus (Baijili), and Kochia fruit (Difuzi), which nourish yin, cool blood, dispel wind and stop itching, and he consistently obtained good results. In my own experience, Guomin Jian may also be combined with the Chinese patent medicine Skin Blood-Toxin Pills (Pifang Xuedu Wan).

Allergic diseases are most common in spring and autumn; because of climate change, many people cannot adapt and develop a series of allergic symptoms. From a modern-medicine perspective, some people have an allergic constitution, mainly due to lowered immunity from genetic and other causes.

But from the TCM perspective, allergy is related to the person's righteous qi (zheng qi) and to "wind" among the six exogenous pathogenic factors. TCM holds that wind is the chief of the hundred diseases; when a person's righteous qi is deficient, external wind evil takes advantage of the vacancy and enters, causing allergy. So treating allergic diseases focuses on dispelling wind.

The Chinese herb Saposhnikovia (Fangfeng) dispels wind and releases the exterior, and occupies a very important place in treating allergic diseases. Besides Professor Zhu's empirical formula, Fangfeng is also used in Yupingfeng granules, commonly used to prevent recurrence of allergic rhinitis, and in Skin Blood-Toxin Pills; I myself also often use Fangfeng as the chief herb to treat allergic diseases. Only when wind evil is constrained and not released do skin diseases and rhinitis—symptoms of failure of lung qi to diffuse—appear, which is why Yin Chaihu, which vents heat and cools blood, is also used.

Professor Zhu's empirical formula is indeed composed chiefly of Yin Chaihu and Saposhnikovia; Mume and Schisandra here astringe lung qi and cool blood, while Licorice harmonizes the other herbs. For skin diseases with marked blood deficiency and blood heat, herbs that cool blood, vent rashes and stop itching must be added. In my own experience, beyond Shengdi, Baimaogen, Mudanpi, Zicao, Baijili and Difuzi commonly used by Professor Zhu, one may also consider Spirodela (Fuping) and raw Sophora bud (Sheng Huaimi), with even better results.