Angelica, Ginger, and Lamb Soup，From *Proven Tea, Decoction, and Soup Recipes for Common Ailments*,Warms and tonifies the spleen and stomach. Suitable for cirrhosis of the liver.
with a distinctly warm cast, the formula may aggravate dryness-heat; those prone to oral ulcers or constipation should be cautious; in the absence of frank deficiency, or where an excess or heat pattern prevails, indiscriminate warming tonic use is inadvisable; the blood-moving action suggests caution in early pregnancy, in heavy or prolonged menses, and in those with a bleeding tendency; the warming-tonic nature is inadvisable during damp-heat, yin deficiency with fire, or episodes of exterior-heat
Commentary
At the head stands Angelica root, the sovereign, of warm nature and sweet, pungent flavor, entering the Liver, Heart, Spleen; it tonifies blood, promotes blood circulation, regulates menstruation, and moistens the intestines, underpinning the principal thrust of the decoction. These are joined ministerially by lamb (nature warm, flavor sweet, channeled into the Spleen, Kidney, Stomach, warms the middle, tonifies qi, and invigorates kidney yang), and ginger (of warm nature and pungent flavor, entering the Lung, Spleen, Stomach, disperses cold, relieves cough and harmonizes the stomach), reinforcing the sovereign’s main effect. Together the herbs converge on this action, in accord with the blood stasis with deficiency pattern.