[Research on fennel used in Suoquan Pill]

Suoquan pill is composed of combined spicebush root, sharp-leaf glangal fruit and common yam rhizome. This recipe comes from Wei Shi Jia Cang Fang (, Wei's Family Stored Formulae) with an original name called "Gu Zhen Dan" (). In Wei Shi Jia Cang Fang, there is a note: take this medicine with some salt soup or salt wine. Before or after that chew dozens of fennel fruits. However, later ancient books were often confused with another prescription of the same name in the process of transmission. The most of editions of Fang Ji Xue(, Prescriptions of Chinese Materia Medica) follow the previous mistakes, most of which mist that "chew dozens of fennel fruits" . The investigations in this research have demonstrated that fennel fruits can be used to enhance the effect of reducing the amount of urine. It is suggested that when reprinting the textbook of Fang Ji Xue, "chew dozens of fennel fruits" should be indicated in the taking method following the original version of ancient books.