Mung Bean and Winter Melon Soup，From *Proven Tea, Decoction, and Soup Recipes for Common Ailments*,Clears heat, promotes diuresis, detoxifies, and reduces swelling. Suitable for the recovery phase of urinary tract infections, with symptoms such as oliguria, hematuria, and proteinuria.
the cool-cold character of the formula suggests restraint in those with yang deficiency or habitual loose stools; given its diuretic nature, avoid prolonged use in those with yin-fluid depletion or excessive urination; the cooling, heat-draining herbs are not suited to those with underlying deficiency-cold of the spleen and stomach
Commentary
At the head stands Mung beans, the sovereign, nature cold, flavor sweet, channeled into the Heart, Stomach; it clears heat and removes toxins, underpinning the principal thrust of the decoction. The ministerial support — winter melon (of cool nature and sweet, bland flavor, entering the Lung, Large Intestine, Small Intestine, clears heat, transforms phlegm and promotes urination) — reinforces the sovereign’s main effect and coordinates the drug strength. Viewed as a whole, the formula addresses the damp-heat in the lower jiao presentation, treating both root and branch.