Formulas · External Application 外用 · Uihak Gangmok (醫學綱目)

Jade Green Salve

Chwiok-go

한글 취옥고 · Pinyin Cui Yu Gao

翠玉膏

瀝靑, the pitch that makes up two thirds of the bulk, has no identifier in the herb list and is left out of the ingredients; it is mineral or boiled pine pitch and not 松脂, which the chapter names separately elsewhere.

Composition 構成

Dongnok Tong Lu
銅綠 동록 · Verdigris

20 g
Chief 君

powdered, added after the base is melted · copper salt, toxic
Hwangnap Huang La
黃蠟 황랍 · Beeswax

20 g
Deputy 臣

melted with the pitch and the oil
Moryak Mo Yao
沒藥 몰약 · Myrrh

12 g
Assistant 佐

powdered, added with the verdigris
Cheongyu Qing You
淸油 청유 · Clear Sesame Oil

320 g
Envoy 使

香油, half a geun, the vehicle of the base

Total 372 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 shin sore
A pitch-and-wax cake pinched to the size of the sore, bound on with cloth and changed once in three days

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

膁瘡 — the sore of the shin that will not close
A chronic ulcer with a slack, discharging floor

Biomedical correlates

Chronic venous leg ulcer — external use
Long-standing lower-leg ulceration

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治膁瘡. 瀝靑四兩, 黃蠟ㆍ銅綠各五錢, 沒藥三錢. 右將香油半斤, 同黃蠟ㆍ瀝靑於火上熔化, 次下銅綠ㆍ沒藥末, 旋旋攪勻成稠, 將藥傾冷水中, 看瘡大小, 捻作餠子貼之, 以帛繫定, 三日一易. 《綱目》

Translation

Treats the shin sore. Pitch 4 nyang; beeswax and verdigris 5 don each; myrrh 3 don. Take half a geun of sesame oil and melt it over the fire together with the beeswax and the pitch; next put in the powdered verdigris and myrrh, stirring round and round until it thickens evenly; pour the medicine into cold water, and looking at how large or small the sore is, pinch it into a cake and stick it on, binding it fast with cloth and changing it once in three days. — Gangmok 綱目 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Pitch, beeswax and sesame oil melted to a stiff base, coloured and medicated with verdigris, with myrrh added last. Poured into cold water to set, it is then pinched off to the size of the sore and bound on — an occlusive dressing cut to the wound, which is what the name describes: the green of the copper salt in a translucent wax. 膁瘡 at 2.11 is the sore of the shin, and the chapter is describing the chronic venous leg ulcer: it begins with 焮腫作痛 over the shin, it is read as 三陰虛, and 久不愈 is assumed. Of everything in this group the vehicle is the part that worked. A wax-and-oil occlusive held against a clean ulcer floor and changed every third day is close to modern moist wound care, and the three-day interval is about right — frequent changes tear off the new surface. **Contains verdigris, basic copper acetate, which is toxic; it must not be applied to a large or deep ulcer, from which copper is absorbed.** In the small quantities of a dressing it is a genuine astringent and antibacterial, which is why it survived in European practice as well, but the therapeutic margin is narrow and there is nothing it does that a modern dressing does not do better. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.