Wu Ling San

Wuling San was first mentioned 1,850 years ago in Zhang Zhongjing’s quintessential prescription manual, Treatise on Disorders Caused by Cold and Miscellaneous Diseases (Shanghan zabing lun). The famous formula classic lists Wuling San for a variety of disorders in as many as nine different locations. The remedy has since maintained its status as one of the representative formulas for the stimulation of water metabolism, particularly in the herbal tradition of Japanese Kanpo medicine. Since the symptom of inhibited urination appears to be the major indication for Wuling San related pathology, it has become regarded as a type of classical diuretic. In the light of modern clinical studies, however, it has become evident that this remedy is often effective when other diuretic approaches have failed, or when patients exhibit fluid problems of a symptomatically opposite nature. More than being just a diuretic in the biomedical sense, therefore, Wuling San constitutes a sustainable approach to harmonizing the three organ networks that are primarily in charge of the body’s water metabolism, namely the Kidney/Bladder, the Spleen and the Lung.

Therapeutic Principles

• Aid transformation of (pre-natal) qi and enhance water metabolism