White茅Root and Pork Stomach Soup，From *Proven Tea, Decoction, and Soup Recipes for Common Ailments*,Clears heat and dispels dampness. Suitable for benign prostatic hyperplasia of the bladder-damp-heat type, characterized by a dribbling, incomplete urination, difficulty urinating, yellowish-red urine, or urinary pain, with a yellow, greasy tongue coating and a slippery, rapid pulse.
in those with yin deficiency and yang hyperactivity, excess liver fire, or internal damp-heat, this warming formula may fuel fire and should be avoided; those who are robust with internal accumulated heat are not suited to this formula; prolonged use of the diuretic action can deplete yin and fluids; those with inadequate yin should be cautious
Commentary
White grass root occupies the sovereign position; of cold nature and sweet flavor, entering the Lung, Stomach, Bladder, it clears heat, stops bleeding and promotes urination and becomes the guiding principle of the whole formula. The ministerial support — pork stomach (nature warm, flavor sweet, channeled into the Spleen, Stomach, tonifies the spleen and harmonizes the stomach), and ginger (warm in nature and pungent in flavor, with Lung, Spleen, Stomach tropism, disperses cold, relieves cough and harmonizes the stomach) — reinforces the sovereign’s main effect and coordinates the drug strength. Finished with scallions, harmonizing the stomach and supporting dietary nourishment, and cooking wine, acting as the envoy to harmonize the various ingredients, the formula attains a regulated, neither-excess nor-deficient balance. Together the herbs converge on this action, in accord with the damp-heat pattern.