Bie Jie Jian Wan

Bie Jie Jian Wan (Turtle Shell Decocted Pill), from Essentials from the Golden Cabinet (Jin Gui Yao Lue).

Actions and indications: Move qi and invigorate blood, dispel dampness and dissolve phlegm, soften hardness, and disperse masses. Indicated for the treatment of malaria with splenomegaly (a.k.a. mother-of-malaria) and various kinds of concretions and accumulations, with malaria (not being cured for long time), pĭ stiffness and masses below the hypochondrium, or concretions and accumulations in the stomach cavity and abdomen, abdominal pain, emaciation, less eating, intermittent chills and fever, or female menstrual block

Modifications: For liver constraint and qi stagnation, add Rhizoma Corydalis ( yan hu suo ) and Fructus Aurantii ( zhi qiao ) to soothe the liver and rectify qi; for scanty urine, add Semen Plantaginis ( che qian zi ) and Medulla Tetrapanacis ( tong cao ) to promote urination and percolate dampness; for internal exuberance of damp-heat, add Herba Artemisiae Scopariae ( yin chen ) and Fructus Gardeniae ( zhi zi ) to clear heat and dispel dampness; for liver-kidney yin deficiency, add Radix Ophiopogonis ( mai dong ) and Radix Rehmanniae ( sheng di huang ) to enrich and supplement the liver and kidney

Cautions: The potency of this formula is strong; it is inadvisable to take in large doses for a long time. Its use is cautious in patients with concretions and accumulations complicated by healthy qi deficiency, and prohibited in pregnant women

Category: Formulas That Resolve Masses and Remove Accumulation.

Source: Xi S, Gong Y. Essentials of Chinese Materia Medica and Medical Formulas: New Century Traditional Chinese Medicine. Academic Press/Elsevier, 2017, pp. 819–822.

Grind the ingredients into powder, make into small pills and take in 3 g doses, 3 times a day