Asarum Fish Head Soup，From *Proven Tea, Decoction, and Soup Recipes for Common Ailments*,Dispels wind and cold; unblocks meridians and relieves pain. Suitable for wind-cold type migraines.
given the warm nature, caution is advised if the tongue is red with scant coating or there is tidal fever and night sweats; in the absence of frank deficiency, or where an excess or heat pattern prevails, indiscriminate warming tonic use is inadvisable; some ingredients are mildly toxic; strictly follow the prescribed amounts, avoid long-term use, and exercise caution in children, pregnancy, and the weak
Commentary
The sovereign is asarum, with warm nature and pungent flavor, having Heart, Lung, Kidney tropism; it disperses cold, unblocks the orifices and relieves pain, anchoring the central strategy of the formula. The ministerial support — eel head (with warm nature and sweet flavor, having Spleen, Stomach tropism, warms the middle, tonifies deficiency, and promotes diuresis), and ginger (of warm nature and pungent flavor, entering the Lung, Spleen, Stomach, 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 wind-cold pattern.