bubble_chart Property

acrid and sweet, warm, nontoxic.

bubble_chart Efficacy

Mainly transforms water and grain, retained food, abdominal mass, strengthens the spleen and warms the stomach. (medicinal property)

bubble_chart Note

Chen Xiu-yuan said:

• All types of yeast and malt are used to transform grains, and accumulated grains can be dissolved by taking this. Sometimes, one may smell the aroma of wine in the nose, and the medicinal properties mentioned for treatment are also related to this. Abdominal mass is formed by the long-term accumulation of water and grains. Strengthening the spleen and warming the stomach are the effects of transforming water and grains. Apart from transforming water and grains, it has no other benefits. Nowadays, people take it regularly and even claim it can cure all diseases, which is very strange!
• The method of making yeast: On the sixth day of the sixth month, which is the day when the six deities gather, use one hundred pounds of white yeast, three liters each of natural juice from Sweet Wormwood, Cocklebur, and Wild Polygonum, three liters each of ground Bitter Apricot Seed paste and Rice Bean powder, to match the six deities: Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, Gou Chen, and Teng Snake. Mix them together to make cakes, wrap them in hemp leaves or paper mulberry leaves, and ferment them like making soy sauce. Wait until yellow mold grows, then dry and store them. The older they are, the better.
• The medicine uses six ingredients to match the day when the six deities gather, and the yellow mold is grown to make yeast, hence it is called medicated leaven. Nowadays, people remove the word 'six' and simply call it Medicated Leaven, arbitrarily adding dozens of ingredients, all of which are harsh and damaging to the original qi. There is even a version called Hundred Herbs Medicated Leaven, which is even more harmful! Recently, the Fujian Medicated Leaven has become popular. Its formula removes Rice Bean from the original six-deity formula, fearing it is prone to worms, and adds Five Ingredients with Poria Powder, Stomach-Calming Powder, Germinated Barley, Millet Sprout, Quisqualis Fruit, Grand Torreya Seed, Rhubarb Rhizoma, Skullcap Root, Areca Peel, Villous Amomum Fruit, White Cardamom, Clove, Aucklandia Root, Patchouli, Cyperus, Galangal, Peony Root, Saposhnikovia Root, Gentian, Notopterygium, Pubescent Angelica, Sichuan Lovage Rhizome, Cultivated Purple Perilla Leaf, Schizonepeta, Stephania Tetrandra, Tangshen, Poria, Radish Seed, Coix Seed, Akebia Stem, Tea Leaf, Dried Ginger, Dried Kudzu, Hovenia, Hawthorn Fruit, Areca Seed, Green Tangerine Peel, Flowering Quince Fruit, Mint, Cicada Slough, Peach Kernel, Carthamus, Sparganium Rhizome, Zedoary Rhizome, Curcuma Root, Acorus, Bupleurum, Chrysanthemum Flower, etc., ground into powder, made into blocks, and fermented with grass to grow yellow mold, then dried. This formula is chaotic and disorderly, misleading many people, yet it has become popular for a time, all because people mistakenly believe the exaggerated claims on the labels. Those who are used to indulging in rich and sweet foods find temporary relief by taking this harsh and dissolving product, but the injury to their original qi goes unnoticed.
• If used in prescriptions, the ancient formulas were carefully designed and would not tolerate such chaotic ingredients, which would interfere with each other. Moreover, mixing medicinal powders with grains and fermenting them to grow yellow mold to make yeast only speeds up the fermentation process. Apart from aiding digestion, it has no other benefits. How can it cure all diseases? Furthermore, the dispersing ingredients lose their pungent and aromatic properties due to fermentation; the hard-dissolving ingredients lose their potent effects; and the nourishing ingredients, with their balanced flavors, turn into foul and turbid substances through fermentation, harming the spleen and stomach, which goes without saying. The wise will understand.
• Having practiced medicine for twenty years, I have found that in the Quanzhou area, seven out of ten cases involve rescuing those who have mistakenly taken Medicated Leaven. For instance, in the case of a common cold, it is essential to examine the meridians to induce perspiration. If Medicated Leaven is taken instead, the internal energy is weakened by the attack, allowing the exterior pathogen to penetrate deeper into the body. For a recent case of food injury (dyspepsia), it is appropriate to aid the stomach in digestion; for a prolonged case, it is suitable to use purgative methods to expel the pathogen. If Medicated Leaven is taken, it can create a sweet, sour, and foul taste that stagnates in the middle jiao, with no way out, leading to nausea and distending pain. Vomiting and diarrhea are due to the imbalance of yin and yang, diarrhea results from the inability to separate water and grain, red and white dysentery is caused by dampness-heat pouring down, choking is due to the dryness of the cardia, regurgitation is due to the decline of Mingmen (GV4) fire, and phlegm-fluid retention is due to the overflow of water qi, none of which are related to Medicated Leaven. If taken mistakenly, it can turn a mild condition into a severe one, or even lead to death. Therefore, one must be cautious! (Only the "Fan Zhi" brand medicine is of high quality and made with excellent methods. I know the details because I am a contemporary of Mr. Wu, whose given name is Guang. It is regrettable that there are many counterfeit products in the market using its name, so one must carefully distinguish them.)