Sour taste in the mouth

A subjective feeling of sourness in the mouth that in severe cases may be accompanied by a sour smell on the breath, and that differs from acid swallowing, which refers to the upflow of acid fluid that is then quickly swallowed before it can be spat out. Sour taste in the mouth is attributed to liver heat, to spleen vacuity being exploited by wood, or to food stagnation.

Patterns

Liver heat (肝热 gān rè) gives rise to a sour-bitter taste in the mouth with fullness and pain in the chest and rib-side, impatience, agitation, and irascibility. There may be red eyes and dizziness, and anguish in the heart, dry stool, and yellow urine. The tongue tends to be red with a thin yellow tongue fur; the pulse is stringlike and slightly rapid.

Medicinal therapy: Course the liver and clear heat. Use Bupleurum Liver-Clearing Decoction (柴胡清肝汤 chái hú qīng gān tāng) or Chinese Angelica, Gentian, and Aloe Pill (当归龙荟丸 dāng guī lóng huì wán).

Spleen vacuity being exploited by wood (脾虚木乘 pí xū mù chéng) gives rise to a sour taste in the mouth that may be accompanied by acid swallowing and retching of bitter fluid. Other signs include belching, sighing, no enjoyment in food, stomach duct glomus and abdominal distension after eating, fatigue and lack of strength, and thin sloppy stool. The tongue fur is white, and the pulse is fine and stringlike or moderate and stringlike.

Medicinal therapy: Use fortifying the spleen and harmonizing the stomach as the main method, complemented by calming the liver. Use Six Gentlemen Decoction (六君子汤 liù jūn zǐ tāng) combined with Left-Running Metal Pill (左金丸 zuǒ jīn wán).

Food stagnation (食滞 shí zhì) gives rise to a sour taste in the mouth with sour and putrid belching, torpid intake and aversion to food, glomus, oppression, distension, and fullness in the stomach duct and abdomen, and foul putrid stool that is either bound or sloppy, and possibly associated with ungratified defecation. The tongue fur is thick and slimy, and sometimes yellow. The pulse is slippery and forceful.

Medicinal therapy: Disperse food and abduct dispersion; harmonize the stomach and downbear qì. Use Harmony-Preserving Pill (保和丸 bǎo hé wán) or Costusroot and Areca Pill (木香槟榔丸 mù xiāng bīng láng wán). See taste in the mouth.