Jiao ai tang also known as Xiong gui jiao ai tang also known as Jiao ai si wu tang
sheng di huang 18 dang gui 9 bai shao 12 chuan xiong 6 zhi gan cao 6 ejiao 9 ai ye 9
Women can have blood leakage, or continuous and incessant blood loss after premature birth, or blood loss during pregnancy, for if accompanied by abdominal pain during pregnancy, jiao ai tang governs.
It is a blood and yin nourishing formula. It stops bleeding due to deficiency of blood and yang or due to heat causing the blood to leave the vessels. The heat can arise from blood stagnation. If the color of the blood is pale and watery then it must be a deficiency. If the color of the blood is bright red then it must be heat. The formula has a neutral temperature and so needs to be modified.
We see the trio of dang gui, bai shao and chuan xiong in other blood tonifying formulas like dang gui shao yao san and dang gui san. The dang gui and chuan xiong provide the Wood wind needed to move the nourishing yin and blood herbs. Bai shao prevents excessive movement of Wood wind.
Sheng di huang, Rehmanniae radix recens is bitter draining of heat in the liver blood and the ministerial fire, heart and kidney. It is sweet nourishing and tonifying of the liver blood and kidney. It enters the heart and kidney channel and nourishes nutritive of blood while clearing heat from the yin layers.
Sheng di huang replenishes yin within the blood and cools blood heat. It replenishes the body’s yin reservoir of the kidney to nourish the liver fluids to build blood and counter deficiency heat. The combination of sheng di and dang gui is by far the most common for treating the liver body. It clears blood heat created by the blood stasis and moistens the nutritive layer. It nourishes new blood through the kidney water.
Dang gui, Angelicae sinensis radix is sweet tonifying and nourishing of liver blood and the ministerial fire. It is pungent dispersing of the liver blood and ministerial fire.
Dang gui is the core herb for nourishing jue yin liver blood. It nourishes heart blood by promoting the upward jue yin movement of liver blood created by kidney yin. Sheng di nourishes and dang gui moves it upward.
Bai shao, Paeoniae radix lactiflora is sour, bitter and cool. It is sour collecting of yin fluids and blood. It is bitter descending of heat. It nourishes dryness in yang ming and the jue yin. It descends Earth and Metal and calms Wood wind.
Bai shao prevents excessive movement of the blood while warming. It softens the liver body and calms internal wind to stop cramping pains. It replenishes nutritive fluids and calms the blood layer that is about to be moved.
Chuan xiong, Ligustici radix is pungent dispersing of the liver and pericardium blood and the ministerial fire in the san jiao.
Chuan xiong moves blood by moving the propelling qi contained within blood but does not strongly eliminate stasis. As such is a safe blood mover provided it is combined with dang gui and bai shao.
It is the core herb for moving qi within blood. Moves liver qi contained in blood allowing the wind to be calmed. The Nei jing states; when blood moves, wind will spontaneously subside.
Ejiao, Asini corii colla is sweet tonifying and nourishing of the stomach and spleen. It directly nourishes the liver, kidney and heart blood. It is salty softening of yin and blood.
Ejiao strongly replenishes the Water element through its animal nature and kidney and heart affinity. Ejiao also controls bleeding during movement of blood. Combined with bai shao it strongly replenishes the nutritive fluids stored in the blood.
Ai ye, Artemisiae argyi folium is bitter and pungent and so warms the blood and can stop bleeding due to heat. It warms the womb, calms the restless fetus, and stops bleeding. Restless fetus is caused by deficient blood in the penetrating vessel that then fails to nourish the fetus.
Zhi gan cao, Glycyrrhizae radix prep is sweet tonifying and nourishing of all organs but especially the heart.
Zhi gan cao is sweet and mildly warm tonifying and nourishing of yin fluids. It nourishes yin fluids in the tai yin and shao yin. It calms wind in the jue yin.
It balances the pungent chuan xiong with its sweet moderation and nourishing.
Sheng di huang is cool and dang gui is warm. Bai shao is cool and chuang xiong is warm. These four herbs are balanced in temperature.
A popular modern formula is based on this classic formula. The formula is called si wu tang and it contains only four ingredients. Shu di huang 12 dang gui 6 bai shao 9 chuang xiong 6. It is a warm formula because shu di huang is used and not sheng di huang.