Okay this is very effective! It has an almost immediate effect upon taking 4 tablets, it reduced the severity/intensity of my warm/gooey throat and blocked nose. Yin chiao is excellent for colds and flus and it's best to start taking it upon the first sign of symptoms and continue taking it until you're all better. People have said it works best when taken in the early stages of a cold/flu but I have found it to be supportive in healing even when taken in the later stages. The label recommend 2-4 tablets, twice a day and I recommend taking 4 tablets as it is more potent. Note that the tablets have no coating (which I prefer as there's no added sugar!) so it would be difficult to swallow dry without water as it would stick to the inside of your mouth/tongue - I recommend taking it with water.
I used to use Planetary Herbal's yinchiao and echinacea formula but unfortunately they discontinued that product. This yinchiao is cheaper than Planetary Herbal's plain yinchiao although it's not identical: this one is missing phragmites rhizome so it has 9 instead of 10 ingredients and for some of the ingredients, different parts of the plant are used (e.g. aerial, leaf, stem or root). I did wonder if it could still be effective given these differences so I bought this to try and I'm really pleased with it! (upon research of other brands of yinchiao, they also only use 9 ingredients and don't have phragmites rhizome so I think this is the classic formula for yinchiao). It's effective and much cheaper, so definitely great value (there is a total of 57.5g of yinchiao in one box here while Planetary Herbals has 54g of yinchiao in one bottle but it's more expensive).
I highly recommend having at least 1 box of these at home in case the onset of a cold comes on as it eases symptoms and will reduce your recovery time. Each vial contains 8 tablets which is 1 day's dosage so one box lasts 12 days (which can be used for 1-3 colds depending on severity and when you start taking it). The vials make the medicine easily portable if you're going out and need to take your day's dose while you're out. I'm really grateful IHERB carries this product and I hope they continue to stock it
