Formulas · Release the Exterior 解表 · Gogeum Uigam (古今醫鑑)

Scallion White Decoction for the Measly Rash

Chongbaek-tang

한글 총백탕 · Pinyin Cong Bai Tang

葱白湯

Two formulas of this name are already registered and this leaf is a third entry under it, so the chapter tail is used. chongbaek-tang-jeonpo, from the 得效, is 陳皮三兩, 葵子一兩, 葱白三莖 for acute urinary retention, three drugs, and has nothing to do with this leaf. chongbaek-tang-buin, from the 海藏, is the harder comparison and the weakest claim to homonym status in this batch: it reads 葱白濃煮汁飮之 for 胎動不安, which is the same single drug boiled and the liquor drunk. The differences are the source label, the indication, and the specification — this leaf says which part to use and how to prepare it, 去靑葉取白根連鬚不拘多少, where the Women's chapter entry only says to boil it thick; and the Women's entry adds 主安胎, 若胎死, 卽出, a claim this leaf does not make. They are separate leaves of separate chapters with separate sources and separate purposes, and the 小兒 leaf needs an entry of its own, so it is registered with the tail rather than merged. A reader comparing the two should understand them as the same material used for two unrelated indications. 生葱 resolves to saengchong, which the herb table carries separately from 葱白 chongbaek; the transcription's 生葱 is kept. 鍳 is printed 鑑.

Composition 構成

Saengchong Sheng Cong
生葱 생총 · Fresh Scallion

—
Chief 君

生葱 — green leaves removed, the white root taken with its rootlets (去靑葉取白根連鬚), any quantity

Total g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 1 ingredient 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

Drunk to bring the measly rash out of itself
Drunk for the thirst of the eruption, to keep a faint moisture in the pores
Fresh scallion with the green leaves taken off, the white root used with its rootlets, in any quantity

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

麻疹當以葱白湯飮之, 其麻自出 — give scallion white decoction and the rash comes out of itself
如渴只宜葱白湯以滋其渴 — where there is thirst, scallion white decoction alone, to moisten it

Biomedical correlates

Measles in the eruptive stage — supportive fluid
Febrile maculopapular exanthem of childhood with thirst

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

生葱, 去靑葉取白根連鬚, 不拘多少. 水煎取汁服. 《醫鑑》

Translation

Fresh scallion: take off the green leaves and use the white root with its rootlets attached, in any quantity. Boil it in water, take the liquor and drink it. — Uigam 醫鑑 (Donguibogam · Soa)

Clinical commentary 臨床

One drug and no weight: fresh scallion, green tops discarded, the white bulb and its rootlets boiled and the liquor drunk, as much as is wanted. It is the simplest formula in the chapter and the section asks it to do two things — bring the rash out, and answer the thirst. The second of those is the useful one. A child in the eruptive stage of measles is febrile, is losing fluid through the skin and often through the gut, and will not eat; warm liquid taken freely and without limit is the one thing on this page that genuinely helps. The section even gives its own criterion for enough — 使毛竅中常微汗潤澤可也, keep a faint moisture in the pores — which is a description of a child who is adequately hydrated and not overheated. That is a sound bedside endpoint arrived at without any theory of fluid balance. Bringing the rash out is the other claim, and it is not real: the measles rash appears when the immune response reaches the skin, and no decoction changes its timing or its extent. The passage that holds this formula also says that where the rash fails to appear and the child is short of breath, the child dies — which is accurate, since that pattern is measles with pneumonia, and pneumonia is what kills. **Measles is still a current disease with a safe, highly effective vaccine, and it returns wherever vaccination coverage falls; vitamin A reduces measles mortality and is recommended for every child with measles.** Fluid and vitamin A would have changed outcomes in this section; the scallion supplied part of the first by accident. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.