Formulas · Tonify Qi & Blood 氣血雙補 · Bonsa (本事)

Cynanchum Decoction

Baengmi-tang

한글 백미탕 · Pinyin Bai Wei Tang

白薇湯

The 鬱冒 prose above the leaf prescribes this and 倉公散 together — 宜白薇湯ㆍ倉公散卽甦 — and both leaves and the prose carry the 本事 label. The name does not collide with baekmi-won, the 得效's 白薇元 for a weeping lacrimal fistula, which is a different formula on the same chief drug. 麄 is printed as the transcription has it, following the corpus, which writes 爲麄末.

Composition 構成

Baengmi Bai Wei
白薇 백미 · Blackend Swallowwort Root

40 g
Chief 君

白薇一兩 — cynanchum root, 1 nyang
Danggwi Dang Gui
當歸 당귀 · Korean Angelica

40 g
Chief 君

當歸一兩 — angelica, 1 nyang
Insam Ren Shen
人蔘 인삼 · Ginseng

20 g
Deputy 臣

人參半兩 — ginseng, 5 don
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

10 g
Envoy 使

甘草二錢半 — licorice, 2 don 5 pun

Total 110 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts.

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

Treats the muffled collapse, also called the blood reversal
Supplements the qi and the blood where sweating has emptied them
A coarse powder, 5 don to a dose, boiled in water and taken warm

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

鬱冒 — the muffled collapse, lying as if dead, the eyes shut and the voice gone
血厥 — the blood reversal, after sweating too much, with the blood scant and the yang risen alone
Collapse of this kind in women, which the source says is where it is mostly seen

Biomedical correlates

Vasovagal and orthostatic syncope
Collapse after fluid or blood loss — hypovolaemia
Post-partum haemorrhage with faintness

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

白薇ㆍ當歸各一兩, 人參半兩, 甘草二錢半. 右爲麄末, 每五錢, 水煎溫服. 《本事》

Translation

Cynanchum root and angelica 1 nyang each, ginseng 5 don, licorice 2 don 5 pun. Make a coarse powder; 5 don to a dose, boiled in water and taken warm. — Bonsa 本事 (Donguibogam · Gugeup)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Angelica and ginseng with licorice is the plainest possible blood-and-qi supplement, and 白薇 is the drug the formula is named for: a cooling root the tradition used for heat that will not come down, here set against the 陽獨上而不下 of the 本事's explanation. Four drugs, no aromatics, nothing to force anything open. Compared with the rest of this chapter it is a quiet formula, and it is given to a quiet collapse. The 鬱冒 passage is one of the most recognisable descriptions in the volume. A person in ordinary health, no illness, suddenly lies as if dead; the body does not move, the eyes are shut and will not open, the voice is gone, there may be a dim awareness of the people in the room; and after a while they come round by themselves. The explanation offered is 汗出過多, 血少 — too much sweating, and the blood scant — which is volume depletion, and the thing being described is syncope: a brief, self-limiting faint, which is exactly what 移時方寤, "after a while they wake", records. The source's note that it is mostly seen in women matches what is known about reflex syncope. The honest modern reading is that this needs no medicine. A fainted patient should be laid flat with the legs raised and left to come round; where there has been real fluid or blood loss, what corrects it is fluid replacement, and after post-partum bleeding, urgent obstetric care. Note also that this formula is given 溫服, by mouth, to a patient the text says cannot speak and will not open the eyes. Someone in that state cannot swallow safely: liquid put in the mouth of a patient with no gag reflex goes into the lungs, and the airway comes first — nothing by mouth until the patient is awake enough to drink unaided. **Licorice at 1 nyang in the batch is not trivial if the powder is taken repeatedly: in quantity and over time it causes potassium loss, fluid retention and hypertension.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.