中藥 · Chinese HerbsIn-house dispensary on Irving StreetCustom formulas filled within 24 hours
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中藥 · Custom formulas

Herbs prescribedlike a sentence.

A formula is not a single ingredient. It is a small composition — emperor, minister, assistant, courier — written for the pattern in front of us, and rewritten as the pattern shifts.

君 · 臣 · 佐 · 使
A wall of small drawers in a Chinese herbal dispensary
The dispensary

Two hundred and fortydrawers, in alphabetical order.

Your Business keeps a working dispensary in the back room. Custom formulas are blended on-site within 24 hours.

Most of our materia medica is sourced through Mayway and Spring Wind Herbs — both California-based, both sulfite-free, both tested for heavy metals and pesticides on every batch. Where granule (concentrate) extracts make sense, we use Sun Ten or KPC, which are pharmaceutical-grade and standardized.

Patients can pick up formulas in the clinic or have them shipped within California. Refills with the same practitioner take ten minutes; new formulas require a brief check-in, in person or by video, so we can re-take the pulse and adjust.

240Single herbs in regular stock
~85Classical formulas, granule form
24 hrStandard custom-blend turnaround
Four delivery formats

How a formulaactually arrives in your kitchen.

湯

Raw decoction

tāng · cooked at home

Bagged single herbs, cooked in a clay pot for 60 minutes once a week. The classical preparation. Strongest, most adjustable, most labor-intensive.

$2.50 / day · prep ~20 min
粒

Granule extract

kē lì · stir into hot water

Pre-extracted concentrated powder, blended to your formula and stirred into hot water twice a day. Most patients land here.

$3.80 / day · prep ~1 min
丸

Patent pills

wán · classical pre-made

Established classical formulas in pill form — Liu Wei Di Huang, Xiao Yao San, Bao He Wan, etc. Easiest to travel with; least adjustable.

$22 / bottle · ~10 days
膏

Topical & rinses

gāo · applied externally

Liniments for sports injury, washes for skin conditions, foot soaks for sleep and circulation. Made in small batches in the clinic.

$24 – $42 / bottle
Three sample formulas

What an actualprescription looks like.

These are simplified — most working formulas have 8 to 14 ingredients, dosed by weight in grams. Your formula will be different. This is to give you a sense of how a TCM prescription is composed.

逍遙散
Xiāo Yáo Sǎn
"Free & Easy Wanderer"

For: Liver Qi stagnation pattern — irritability, PMS, ribside fullness

One of the most commonly modified base formulas in modern practice. Patients describe a kind of everything is too much tightness in the chest and shoulders that is markedly worse before menstruation. The formula moves stuck Liver Qi while supporting the Spleen, which the stuck Liver tends to overrun.

柴胡Chái Hú · Bupleurum
當歸Dāng Guī · Angelica sinensis
白芍Bái Sháo · White peony
白朮Bái Zhú · Atractylodes
茯苓Fú Líng · Poria
薄荷Bò Hé · Field mint
炙甘草Zhì Gān Cǎo · Honey-fried licorice
生薑Shēng Jiāng · Fresh ginger
酸棗仁湯
Suān Zǎo Rén Tāng
"Sour Jujube Decoction"

For: Insomnia from Liver Blood deficiency — racing mind, dream-disturbed sleep

From the Han-dynasty Jingui Yaolue, written almost two thousand years ago. We see strong responses in patients who fall asleep but wake at 2 or 3 a.m. with a busy mind, especially when the tongue is pale and slightly trembling.

酸棗仁Suān Zǎo Rén · Jujube seed
茯苓Fú Líng · Poria
知母Zhī Mǔ · Anemarrhena
川芎Chuān Xiōng · Sichuan lovage
甘草Gān Cǎo · Licorice
玉屏風散
Yù Píng Fēng Sǎn
"Jade Windscreen"

For: Recurrent colds, weak immunity — Wei Qi deficiency pattern

Three herbs, taken seasonally. We dispense it most often in early autumn for patients who get four or more colds a year, who sweat easily, and who feel particularly vulnerable to wind. Patent-pill form is fine here.

黃芪Huáng Qí · Astragalus root
白朮Bái Zhú · Atractylodes
防風Fáng Fēng · Saposhnikovia
Safety & sourcing

Why theprovenance matters.

The Chinese herb supply chain has, historically, had quality problems. We have spent ten years narrowing the field of suppliers we will buy from, and we are happy to walk any patient through where each herb in their formula came from.

Every batch we receive carries a Certificate of Analysis — heavy metals, microbial counts, pesticide residues, identity confirmation. We file them. We will share them.

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Begin witha herbal consultation.

A 45-minute herbal-only consultation runs $145 and includes the first two weeks of a custom formula. Existing acupuncture patients can add herbs at any visit.

Book a consultation