Xi Xin

Category: Warm, Acrid Herbs that Release the Exterior

Xi Xin

Channels Entered: Lung, Heart, Kidney

Dosage: 1-3g

Cautions & Contraindications:

• Contraindicated where there is profuse sweating from qi deficiency, or headaches or cough due to yin deficiency.

Actions & Indications:

• Disperses cold and releases the exterior: an adjunctive herb for any exterior cold pattern, especially with the addition of dampness or underlying yang deficiency. This herb is often used for externally-contracted wind-cold when the dominant symptoms are head and body aches.
• Dispels wind, disperses cold, and relieves pain: for pain due to wind and/or cold anywhere in the body, but particularly headache, painful obstrucion, abdominal pain, or toothache. Often the conditions are marked by wind, cold and dampness having obstructed the muscles to the point that there is no sweating and even the blood can not flow smoothly, as in Chuan Xiong Cha Tiao San and Da Huo Ji Sheng Tang.
• Warms the lungs and transforms thin mucus: for cough and qi which surges upward, as well as fullness in the chest with continuous cough from clumped qi in the chest and diaphragm. These patterns are usually marked by coughing with copious, watery sputum. For this purpose the herb is often used with Gan Jiang and Zhi Ban Xia, as in Xiao Qing Long Tang.
• Unblocking and facilitating the orifices: for various types of nasal congestion, oral pathology, and some types of loss of consciousness, all of which impair the clear orifices of the head.

Combinations:

Xi Xin

• Gan Jiang, Zhi Ban Xia: coughing with copious, watery sputum
• Huang Lian: toothache and abscesses
• Chuan Xiong, Green Tea
• Bai Zhi: toothache
• Bai Zhu: congestion due to Spleen qi deficiency

Formulas:

• Chuan Xiong Cha Tiao San
• Da Huo Ji Sheng Tang
• Xiao Qing Long Tang

Notes:

• Xi Xin unblocks both the orifices and the shen.
• To treat unconsciousness, Xi Xin is powdered and blown up the nose.