Assistant heat syndrome

Lu Gen is sweet and cold, and enters the Lung, Stomach and Kidney meridians. It is often used as assistant in a formula to treat a wind-heat syndrome because it not only clears heat but also generates body fluids, which have been injured by heat in a wind-heat syndrome. In addition, it is also used to treat nausea and belching when the heat from the Lung affects the Stomach. 

The other three herbs are able to leach out dampness and promote urination. They can be selected in the formula to assist the chief and deputy herbs to remove damp-phlegm. Among these herbs, Fu Ling is neutral and can gently tonify the Spleen-Qi Ze Xie and Yi Yi Ren are cold and are more suitable for treating phlegm-heat syndrome. 

Qing Hao is bitter, cold and aromatic, and enters the Liver and Gall Bladder meridians. It can clear and disperse heat from these meridians, especially from the blood and Yin levels. In a formula that descends the Liver-Yang, Qing Hao is used as a corrective assistant to disperse and ascend the restrained Liver-Qi, which is suppressed by the heavy and cold descending minerals and herbs. Meanwhile, since Qing Hao can brighten the eyes, clear summer-heat and damp-heat, it can be selected if red and swollen eyes with blurred vision are present in the syndrome. 

Sang Ye and Ju Hua are sweet, bitter and cold Bo He is pungent and cold. They all enter the Lung and Liver meridians and have light dispersing and descending abilities. As assistants in formulas, they disperse constrained Liver-Qi and clear Liver-heat to treat secondary syndromes. They are particularly effective for treating dry eyes, blurred vision and headache. 

Fu Ling is neutral and bland, and enters the Heart, Spleen and Kidney meridians. It can gently tonify the Qi of these organs, and can be used in either heat or cold syndromes of deficiency. It is often used as assistant to eliminate dampness in the Middle-Jiao. The dampness can be generated by deficiency of Spleen-Qi or from the cloying nature of the sweet tonifying herbs. Fu Ling can also tonify the Heart-Qi and calm the mind. 

Microwave heat-assisted enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been used for measuring anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) antibodies in kidney serum (Van Dorp et al., 1991) The presence of GBM antibodies is one of the characteristics of Goodpasture s syndrome. The application of microwave heating reduces the duration of incubation to assay circulating anti-GBM autoantibodies. 

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