Formulas · External Application 外用 · Immun (入門)

Phellodendron and Clamshell Powder

Baekhap-san

한글 백합산 · Pinyin Bai Ge San

栢蛤散

The id takes the -jechang tail because the bare id baekhap-san is already held by 百合散 of the 得效 line, which romanises identically although the 漢字 differ; the two are unrelated formulas. 盖 is left as the transcription and the corpus both print it. The 磁鋒, the edge of a porcelain shard used as a scraper, is apparatus and stays in the method. The leaf gives the drugs as equal parts with no weights, so no gram figures are entered.

Composition 構成

Hwangbaek Huang Bai
黃柏 황백 · Phellodendron

—
Chief 君

scraped to a powder with the edge of a porcelain shard, equal parts
Hapbun Ge Fen
蛤粉 합분 · Clamshell Powder

—
Deputy 臣

equal parts

Total 0 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 2 ingredients measured by count or used as a vehicle, shown as —.

Received this formula from your practitioner? Amounts shown here are classical reference values — granule and prepared products differ. Always follow your prescribed dosage and directions.

Actions 效能

Two drugs in equal parts dusted dry on a wet chancre
Phellodendron takes away the heat and clamshell powder dries the damp — the leaf says so itself

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

下疳濕瘡 — the wet chancre, an ulcer that will not dry
Weeping, macerated ulceration of the glans and prepuce

Biomedical correlates

Exudative genital ulcer
Macerated balanoposthitis

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治下疳濕瘡. 黃栢(以磁鋒刮取末)ㆍ蛤粉. 右末等分, 糝上卽愈. 盖黃栢去熱, 蛤粉燥濕也. 《入門》

Translation

Treats the wet chancre. Phellodendron, scraped to a powder with the edge of a porcelain shard, and clamshell powder. Equal parts of the two powders, dusted on the sore, and it heals at once. For phellodendron takes away the heat and clamshell powder dries the damp. — Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The shortest useful leaf in the section, and the only one that explains itself. Two powders in equal parts — phellodendron scraped fine with a shard of broken porcelain, and burnt clamshell — dusted dry onto a chancre that keeps weeping. The closing clause is the reasoning: 黃栢去熱, 蛤粉燥濕, phellodendron takes the heat away, clamshell powder dries the damp. One drug for each half of the diagnosis. As a dusting powder this is defensible. Calcined clamshell is calcium carbonate and oxide, which is genuinely absorbent and will take up exudate, and berberine from phellodendron has a real if weak antibacterial action. Dusting an absorbent powder onto a macerated surface after it has been irrigated is the sequence the section head prescribes — 常須藥湯淋洗, 以去膿汁惡水, then 糝付 — and it is close to what a modern dressing does. The claim 糝上卽愈, heals at once on dusting, is the usual overstatement. **A genital ulcer needs testing and systemic treatment; a powder keeps the surface dry while the cause goes untreated. Calcined shell is alkaline and should not be loaded onto raw tissue.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.