Amber Classic Formulas — Natural Herb Library

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Quiets the Spirit and calms the Heart (An Shen) — palpitations, anxiety, insomnia, and nightmares from Heart Shen disturbance; one of the principal An Shen (Spirit-calming) drugs in the TCM pharmacopoeia alongside Long Gu (dragon bone), Zhen Zhu Mu (pearl), and Ci Shi (magnetite)
Activates Blood and dissolves Blood Stasis — amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, post-partum Blood Stasis, and abdominal masses from Liver Blood Stasis; descending action of Liver channel herb reaches the lower abdomen
Promotes urination and dissolves Bladder Stagnation — dysuria, haematuria, urinary calculi (stones), and painful urinary strangury (lin); classical use for Blood Lin (bloody painful urination) and Stone Lin (urinary calculi)
Reduces swelling and heals wounds (external) — chronic non-healing ulcers and infected wounds; Hu Po powder dusted onto wound surfaces; traditionally combined with Long Gu in topical ulcer powder

Hu Po Duo Mei Wan (琥珀多寐丸) — for insomnia, anxiety, and nightmares; Hu Po combined with Ren Shen, Long Yan Rou (longan), Dang Gui, Fu Ling, and Suan Zao Ren; restores Heart Blood and quiets Shen; classical formula still used in contemporary TCM for Heart Blood deficiency insomnia with anxiety
Hu Po San (琥珀散) — multiple classical versions; the urinary variant combines Hu Po with Mu Tong, Hua Shi (talcum), Che Qian Zi, and Deng Xin Cao for Blood Lin and Stone Lin; promotes urination and dissolves Bladder Stasis
An Shen Wan (安神丸) variant — Hu Po as one of several An Shen drugs combined with Zhen Zhu Mu, Long Gu, Bai Zi Ren, and He Huan Pi for composite Spirit-calming formula

Ming Yi Bie Lu (Tao Hongjing, 500 CE): 'Hu Po is sweet, neutral — calms the Spirit, dispels nightmares, breaks Blood Stasis, promotes urination, dissolves Lin strangury — it is fossilised pine resin transformed by the earth over countless generations; enter it with Bao Mu (preserved wood)'
Ben Cao Gang Mu (Li Shizhen): 'Hu Po enters the Heart and Liver blood aspects — calms the Shen, breaks Blood, drains Lin strangury, reduces swellings; the name Hu Po (tiger + amber) may derive from folk belief that tiger spirit transforms into stone after death — or from the yellow-orange colour resembling tiger markings; genuine Hu Po should give a resinous pine aroma when touched with a hot needle and float in saturated salt solution'
MINERAL NOTE: Hu Po (琥珀) is fossilised tree resin (amber) — an organic-mineral drug, not a plant, though it is of botanical origin (ancient conifers). Commercial Hu Po comes principally from Baltic amber (succinite, 3–8% succinic acid) and Burmese amber (burmite). Widely adulterated with copal (young resin), synthetic resins, and plastics — verify by hot-needle test (pine-resin aroma), salt-water float test (density ~1.05–1.10 g/cm³), and UV fluorescence. Hu Po is always used as a powder or in pills — NEVER decocted (heat degrades the drug).