Historical Evolution and Modern Clinical Application of Danggui Liuhuangtang / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Danggui Liuhuangtang is the 47th of the 100 famous classical formulas published by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine， and is known as the holy medicine for night sweat. By bibliometrics， the authors collected the ancient books on Danggui Liuhuangtang and screened out 269 valid data， involving 156 ancient books of traditional Chinese medicine. The analysis on the historical origin， disease syndromes， pathogenesis， composition， dosage， preparation， usage， and processing of Danggui Liuhuangtang found that this famous classical formula originated from Secret Book of the Orchid Chamber （《兰室秘藏》） written by LI Dongyuan， and is composed of Angelicae Sinensis Radix， Rehmanniae Radix， Rehmanniae Radix Praeparata， Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex， Scutellariae Radix， Coptidis Rhizoma and Astragali Radix. It has the functions of nourishing Yin， reducing fire， consolidating exterior and stopping sweating， and mainly treats night sweat due to Yin deficiency and fire exuberance. In the later generations， disease syndromes are mostly treated based on LI Dongyuan's theory， and have expanded to more than 30 kinds （339 in total）， among which night sweat （208） was the most， accounting for 61.36% of the total disease syndromes， followed by spontaneous sweating （38）， accounting for 11.21%. Additionally， it was found that Danggui Liuhuangtang was widely used in modern clinical practice for various disease syndromes. Among them， endocrine disease （77， 28.21%） was predominant， followed by gynecological disease （48， 17.58%）， and pediatric disease （24， 8.79%）. Although Danggui Liuhuangtang treats many disease syndromes， their pathogenesis was always yin deficiency and fire exuberance. Through the systematic excavation of the ancient books on Danggui Liuhuangtang and the analysis of its modern clinical application， this paper probed into the historical evolution and confirmed the key information of the formula， providing detailed literature basis for the research and development application of famous classical formulas.