Katsumada Galangal Seed

Traditional Use

Primary Actions

• Dries dampness and awakens the Spleen ... Cao Dou Kou is used for a heavy, obstructed middle burner with poor appetite, loose stool, and greasy damp stagnation.
• Moves Qi and relieves fullness ... it helps when abdominal distension, epigastric oppression, and stagnant dampness create a blocked, swollen feeling.
• Warms the middle and stops nausea or vomiting ... the aromatic seed is chosen when cold-damp digestive upset rises upward instead of descending normally.

Secondary Actions

• This page follows the whole-seed medicinal lane and should stay linked to the `seed-of-katsumada-galangal-2` sibling rather than being treated as a different herb family.
• Cao Dou Kou overlaps in naming with Dou Kou and Cao Kou, but it should still be kept distinct from Bai Dou Kou, Hong Dou Kou, and Cao Guo in content and indexing.

Classic Formulas

• Digestive damp-obstruction combinations with Hou Po, Chen Pi, and Mu Xiang ... classic aromatic strategy for fullness, nausea, and stagnant middle-burner Qi.
• Cold-damp vomiting pairings with Gan Jiang and Ban Xia ... used when the Stomach is cold, heavy, and prone to retching.
• Loose-stool and poor-appetite combinations with Bai Zhu or Cang Zhu ... traditional approach when dampness and weak transformation coexist.

Classical References

• TCM teaching describes Cao Dou Kou as pungent and warm, entering the Spleen and Stomach to dry dampness, move Qi, warm the middle, and stop vomiting.
• Later materia medica discussions separate Cao Dou Kou more clearly from other cardamom-like aromatics, even though older texts sometimes used overlapping names.