Yi Tang – Maltose – Saccharum Granorum

 Yi Tang

English Name: barley malt sugar, maltose

Pharmaceutical Name: Saccharum Granorum

Medica Category: Qi-Tonifying Herbs

Properties: Yi Tang enters the Spleen, Stomach, and Lung channels; it is sweet in nature and warm in temperature.

What is Yi Tang?:

The Chinese Herb Yi Tang is maltose (or barley malt sugar), which is sugar that is extracted from barley malt. It can be made into a syrup or heated/stir-baked until it hardens (and then crushed into small pieces or ground into powder) for use as medicine.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Therapeutic Actions of Yi Tang:

Yi Tang is sweet and warm and tonifies the Spleen to address fatigue, shortness of breath, and poor appetite due to deficiency.

Yi Tang nourishes the middle jiao to treat abdominal pain caused by deficiency and cold (i.e. pain that is alleviates by warmth and pressure).

Yi Tang moistens the Lung to relieve cough caused by dryness of qi deficiency.

–safety/clinical notes:

Use with caution for persons with nausea and vomiting from accumulated dampness in the middle jiao.

Contraindicated in persons with heat or phlegm.

Contraindicated in children with gan ji (childhood malnutrition) or cough caused by hot phlegm (i.e. cough with yellow sputum).