BACKGROUND: Qinggong changchun dan (QGCCD) capsule has efficacy in profiting kidney-yang and bettering muscle or bone, it could treat debility, deficiency of energy, forgettery and tiredness and the ache of waist or knee in clinic.OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of QGCCD capsule on stress capability of mice with kidney-yang deficiency.DESIGN: Completely randomized controlled trial.SETTING: Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengde Medical College (Key Laboratory of Research and Exploiture of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hebei Province).MATERIALS: Totally 60 stirp Kunming mice, weighting 19-21 g, of either gender, of grade Ⅱ, were selected in this study.METHODS: The experiment was conducted in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Chengde Medical College from February 2002 to December 2002. Totally 160 Kunming mice of either gender were randomly divided into three groups:Swimming endurance group (n=60), tolerance of hypoxia at normal pressure group (n=50) and single macrophage function group (n=50); and mice in each group were divided into 5 subgroups, including 0.25, 0.5,1.0 g/kg QGCCD groups, model control group and normal control group.Mice were fasted for 12 hours and injected with 25 mg/kg hydrocortisone for 7 successive days to establish yang-deficiency model. Various dosages of QGCCD were given with the same volume of 20 mL/kg for 7 successive days. Mice in model control group were treated with the same volume of saline. Forty minutes later, testes of swimming tolerance, tolerance time of anoxia and engulfment capability of macrophage were performed on mice [To take 20 μL blood in the eyepit vein plexus after the mice were injected 2 minutes and 10 minutes later respectively, and to count the charcoal particle expurgation index (K) of macrophage] to observe effect of various dosages of QGCCD on swimming tolerance, tolerance time of anoxia and engulfment capability of macrophage.RESULTS: Data of totally 160 mice was entered the final analysis without normal control group were longer than those of mice in model control group [(10.94±3.79), (13.68±5.62), (14.58±5.49), (16.12±2.35), (6.45±4.87) minutes;ia of mice in 0.25, 0.5, 1.0 g/kg QGCCD groups and normal control group were longer than those of mice in model control group [(19.45 ±4.63),(21.18±4.25), (22.58±5.21), (23.12±4.78), (12.35±4.89) minutes; t=1.566,macrophage and K index of mice in 0.25, 0.5, 1.0 g/kg QGCCD groups and normal control group were higher than those of mice in model control group (0.023 6±0.010 6, 0.029 1±0.0092, 0.030 8±0.008 6, 0.031 8±0.010 1, 0.012 5±0.008 1; t=2.63, 4.282, 4.898, 4.714, P ＜ 0.05-0.01).CONCLUSION: QGCCD can prolong the swimming time of mice obviously, prolong tolerance time of anoxia according to dosage dependence,increase engulfment capability of macrophags, and strengthen stress capability of mice with kidney-yang deficiency.