Formulas · Clear Heat 淸熱 · Taepyeong Seonghyebang (太平聖惠方)

Licorice and Pig's Gall Pill

Gamdam-hwan

한글 감담환 · Pinyin Gan Dan Wan

甘膽丸

Composition 構成

Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

80 g
Chief 君

the red skin removed, cut in two-inch lengths and split down the middle
Jeodamjeup Zhu Dan Zhi
猪膽汁 저담즙 · Pig Bile

—
Deputy 臣

the gall of five pigs, the licorice steeped in it for three days, then roasted dry
Bongmil Feng Mi
蜂蜜 봉밀 · Honey

—
Envoy 使

refined, as the pill binder

Total 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

Treats panting and cough that will not stop after swallowing something sour has caught in the throat
where no other medicine has worked

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Cough following an irritant swallowed
Throat and lung irritated with unceasing cough

Biomedical correlates

Post-irritant cough
Chemical laryngitis

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治吃酸搶喉, 因成喘嗽不止, 諸藥無效. 甘草二兩(去赤皮, 作二寸段, 中半劈開), 用猪膽汁五枚浸三日, 取出灸乾, 爲細末, 煉蜜和丸菉豆大. 每服四五十丸, 茶淸呑下, 卧服神效. 曾有人患此病, 諸藥不效, 用此一服愈. 《聖惠》

Translation

Treats panting and cough that will not stop, come of swallowing something sour that caught in the throat, where no other medicine has worked. Licorice, 2 nyang, the red skin removed, cut into two-inch lengths and split down the middle; steep it three days in the gall of five pigs, take it out, roast it dry, grind it to a fine powder, and make pills the size of a mung bean with refined honey. Forty or fifty pills each dose, swallowed down with clear tea, taken lying down, with wonderful effect. There was once a man ill with this who got no effect from any medicine, and one dose of this cured him. — Taepyeong Seonghyebang 聖惠 (Donguibogam · Haesu)

Clinical commentary 臨床

One drug and one vehicle. Licorice split lengthways, steeped three days in pig's gall so that the bitter juice soaks into it, then dried and pilled with honey — a long preparation for a simple thing, and the indication is as specific as anything in the chapter: a cough that began when something sour was swallowed the wrong way and would not stop. 吃酸搶喉 is an acid aspiration or an irritant catching in the larynx, and a persistent cough afterwards is exactly what follows. Licorice is genuinely demulcent and anti-inflammatory, so the formula is not implausible; the chapter files it under 諸傷發喘嗽, coughs from injuries, which is the right place for it. **Pig's gall taken by mouth carries an infection risk and is not to be prepared. Licorice in quantity causes potassium loss and raises blood pressure.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.