Ginseng and Eight Treasures Soup

Herbal Tea Name: Ginseng and Eight Treasures Soup

Chinese Name: 人参八仙汤

Formula

4 grams of white ginseng, 30 grams each of dried scallops and cooked pork liver, 50 grams of abalone, 60 grams of cleaned winter bamboo shoots, 300 grams each of rehydrated sea cucumber and chicken meat, 20 grams each of dried crab roe, rehydrated button mushrooms, and dried shrimp, 200 grams of pork ribs, and seasonings to taste.

Main Ingredients

Efficacy

Tonifies qi and raises blood pressure. Suitable for hypotension caused by deficiency of middle qi.

Usage

Serve the soup as an accompaniment to a meal; enjoy as desired.

Commentary

At the head stands White ginseng, the sovereign, warm in nature and sweet, slightly bitter in flavor, with Spleen, Lung, Heart, Kidney tropism; it greatly tonifies yuan qi, restores collapse and generates fluids, underpinning the principal thrust of the decoction. The ministerial layer, pork ribs (of neutral nature and sweet flavor, entering the Spleen, Stomach, tonifies the middle and boosts qi), and abalone (with neutral nature and sweet, salty flavor, having Liver, Kidney tropism, nourishes yin, clears heat, and brightens the eyes), lends support that reinforces the sovereign’s main effect. Finished with winter bamboo shoots, harmonizing the stomach and supporting dietary nourishment, and rehydrated button mushrooms, harmonizing the stomach and supporting dietary nourishment, the formula attains a regulated, neither-excess nor-deficient balance. Together the herbs converge on this action, in accord with the middle qi deficiency pattern.

Ginseng and Eight Treasures Soup,From *Proven Tea, Decoction, and Soup Recipes for Common Ailments*,Tonifies qi and raises blood pressure. Suitable for hypotension caused by deficiency of middle qi.

in the absence of frank deficiency, or where an excess or heat pattern prevails, indiscriminate warming tonic use is inadvisable; warming tonics readily stir heat and burden the spleen; caution is advised where dampness-heat or food stagnation accumulates in the middle