Yin Qiao San: A Time-Tested Remedy for Colds and More
- Hongji Medical
- Feb 2
- 5 min read
Yin Qiao San is a well-known herbal formula from Traditional Chinese Medicine, rooted in the Treatise on Warm Diseases. It’s designed to tackle early-stage symptoms of wind-heat conditions, like those pesky colds that come with a sore throat or fever.
This article breaks down its ingredients, benefits, modern uses, and how you can pair it with simple diet tweaks to boost its effects.
What’s in Yin Qiao San?
This formula combines several herbs, each with a specific role in fighting off symptoms. Here’s what’s included:
Honeysuckle flower (30g): Clears heat and toxins, soothing sore throats and fever.
Forsythia fruit (30g): Works alongside honeysuckle to reduce inflammation and clear skin issues like redness or swelling.
Mint (18g): Eases headaches, stuffy noses, and sore throats by dispersing wind-heat.
Balloon flower root (18g): Opens up the lungs to relieve coughs and throat discomfort.
Bamboo leaf (12g): Cools the body and calms restlessness caused by fever.
Licorice root (15g): Harmonizes the formula and soothes sore throats.
Fermented soybean (15g): Helps with restlessness and sleeplessness from colds.
Burdock seed (18g): Clears heat, reduces swelling, and tackles sore throats and coughs.
Reed rhizome (12g): Hydrates the body and relieves thirst caused by heat.
How to Use It
Grind these herbs into a powder and take 18g per dose. Add 15g of fresh reed rhizome, boil briefly until fragrant (don’t overcook!), and drink. Alternatively, make a soup by decocting the herbs in water, adjusting the dose as needed.
What It Does and When to Use It
Yin Qiao San is all about cooling the body, flushing out toxins, and kicking wind-heat to the curb. It’s perfect for:
Wind-heat colds: Think fever, sore throat, cough, headache, or stuffy nose.
Flu and respiratory infections: It helps with symptoms of flu or other upper respiratory issues.
Skin problems: Acne, rashes, or swelling caused by internal heat can also benefit.
Why It Works
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, wind-heat colds happen when external “wind” and “heat” invade the body, causing fever, chills, or aches. The body’s defense system (Wei Qi) gets busy fighting these invaders, which can leave you feeling cold or achy.
Heat also messes with the lungs, leading to coughs or sore throats, and dries out your fluids, making you thirsty. Yin Qiao San steps in to cool things down, clear out the bad stuff, and restore balance.
Modern Uses
Today, Yin Qiao San is a go-to for early-stage illnesses like:
Colds and flu: Its cooling herbs, like honeysuckle and forsythia, ease fever and sore throats.
Infections: Research shows it has antiviral and antibacterial properties, making it useful for respiratory infections, including flu or even mild COVID-19 cases.
Skin conditions: It’s used for eczema, hives, or sores caused by heat and toxins.
Other illnesses: It can help with acute tonsillitis, pneumonia, measles, or mumps when symptoms match wind-heat patterns.
Pairing with Food for Extra Relief
Boost Yin Qiao San’s effects with these simple dietary additions:
Reed rhizome porridge: Cook 30g fresh reed rhizome with 50g rice for a cooling, hydrating porridge.
Mint tea: Steep 5g mint leaves in hot water to clear headaches and stuffiness.
Honeysuckle tea: Brew 5g honeysuckle flowers for a detoxifying, cooling drink.
Things to Watch Out For
Not for wind-cold colds: If you have chills, no fever, or a runny nose with clear mucus, this isn’t the right formula.
Avoid in damp-heat conditions: It’s not suitable for illnesses with heavy, sticky symptoms.
Don’t overcook: The herbs are light and aromatic, so boil briefly to keep their potency.
Wrapping Up
Yin Qiao San is a powerful, time-tested remedy for wind-heat colds and more. Its blend of cooling, detoxifying herbs makes it a staple in Traditional Chinese Medicine and a valuable tool in modern care for colds, flu, and skin issues.
Pair it with simple dietary tweaks for even better results, but always use it carefully, keeping its precautions in mind. With the right approach, this classic formula can help you feel better, faster.
Chinese Name | 銀翹散 |
Phonetic | Yin Qiao San |
English Name | Lonicera and Forsythia Powder |
Classification | Exterior-releasing formulas |
Source | 《Systematic Differentiation of Warm Diseases》Wen Bing Tiao Bian《溫病條辨》 |
Combination | Forsythiae Fructus (Lian Qiao) 1 liang (30g), Lonicerae Japonicae Flos (Jin Yin Hua) 1 liang (30g), Platycodonis Radix (Jie Geng) 6 qian (18g), Menthae Haplocalycis Herba (Bo He) 6 qian (18g), Lophatheri Herba (Zhu Ye) 4 qian (12g), Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma (Sheng Gan Cao) 5 qian (15g), Schizonepetae Spica (Jing Jie Sui) 4 qian (12g), Sojae Semen Praeparatum (Dan Dou Chi) 5 qian (15g), Arctii Fructus (Niu Bang Zi) 6 qian (18g) |
Method | Grind them into powder. Take 18g of powder per dose. Add 15g of fresh lu gen to the powder and boil to make it a beverage. It is ready when the fragrance can be smelled. It is important to not over-boil it. It can also be prepared as decoction. |
Action | Vents the exterior with acrid-cool, clears heat, and resolves toxin. |
Indication | Yin Qiao San is indicated for the early stage of a warm disease. The symptoms are fever, slight aversion to cold, absent or inhibited sweating, headache, thirst, cough, and sore throat. The tip of the tongue is red with a thin, yellow coating, and the pulse is superficial and rapid. |
Pathogenesis | “When the upper body suffers a warm pathogen, the lung is attacked first《Systematic Differentiation of Warm Diseases》- Chapter on Exteriorly Contracted Warm-heat”. The warm pathogen enters the mouth and nasal cavities to attack the lung in the upper jiao. Since the lung is connected with the wei qi, which becomes constrained by the warm pathogen, the distribution and retrieval of wei qi is out of control. As a result, there will be a fever, slight aversion to wind-cold, and an absence or inhibition of sweating. Since the lung fails to diffuse qi, a cough develops. Blockage of the lung system by the warm pathogen causes the throat to be sore. They also damage yin fluids, so the patient feels thirsty. The red tongue tip, thin, white or slight yellow coating, and rapid, superficial pulse are all evidence of an early stage of warm disease. The disease mechanism of a Yin Qiao San pattern is the constraint of the wei qi by the warm pathogen in the initial stage, inhibiting lung distribution. It is characterized by exterior constraint and relatively serious pathogenic heat. The proper treatment method is to vent the exterior with acrid-cool, clear heat, and resolve toxins. |
Application | 1. Essential pattern differentiation The source book describes Yin Qiao San as a gentle acrid-cool formula. It is commonly indicted for an early stage wind-warmth pattern with exterior wind-heat. This clinical pattern is marked by fever, aversion to cold, sore throat, thirst, superficial and rapid pulse. 2. Modern applications This formula may be used in the following biomedically defined disorders when the patient shows early signs of acute pyrogenic diseases in an early stage of warm disease with the wei qi of the lung constrained by pathogens: common cold, flu, acute tonsillitis, upper respiratory tract infection, pneumonic, measles, epidemic meningitis, type-B encephalitis, and mumps. It is also often used for dermatological diseases such as eczema, German measles, hives, sores, abscesses, furuncles, and swellings. 3. Cautions and contraindications Yin Qiao San is forbidden for patients with externally contracted wind-cold or damp-heat disease. Since there are many aromatic medicinals in the formula with a light diffusing nature. It is inappropriate to boil it for an extended period of time. |
