Formulas · Calm the Spirit 安神 · Immun (入門)

Gold Leaf Settle the Heart Pill

Geumbakjinsim-hwan

한글 금박진심환 · Pinyin Jin Bo Zhen Xin Wan

金箔鎭心丸

A homonym, not the 金箔鎭心丸 already registered as `geumbakjinsim-hwan`. That entry is the 回春 formula from 神門 — bile-processed arisaema, cinnabar, amber, bamboo sugar, ox bezoar, realgar, pearl and musk — and shares only cinnabar, ox bezoar and musk with this one. This leaf is from 入門 and is built on scorpion, gastrodia, siler, notopterygium, red poria, rhinoceros horn and licorice, none of which appear in the other. Hence the chapter tail.

Composition 構成

Jeongal Quan Xie
全蠍 전갈 · Scorpion (toxic)

—
Chief 君

seven scorpions (七箇), wrapped in mint leaf and roasted dry over a slow fire — venomous animal material
Jusa Zhu Sha
朱砂 주사 · Cinnabar (toxic)

4 g
Chief 君

cinnabar — mercuric sulfide, toxic
Cheonma Tian Ma
天麻 천마 · Gastrodia

4 g
Deputy 臣
Bangpung Fang Feng
防風 방풍 · Siler

4 g
Deputy 臣
Uhwang Niu Huang
牛黃 우황 · Cattle Gallstone

4 g
Deputy 臣
Seogak Xi Jiao
犀角 서각 · Rhinoceros Horn (prohibited)

4 g
Deputy 臣

rhinoceros horn — must not be used
Ganghwal Qiang Huo
羌活 강활 · Notopterygium

4 g
Assistant 佐
Jeokbongnyeong Chi Fu Ling
赤茯苓 적복령 · Poria (red)

4 g
Assistant 佐
Sahyang She Xiang
麝香 사향 · Musk (prohibited)

4 g
Envoy 使

musk — a protected material
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

4 g
Envoy 使
Bongmil Feng Mi
蜂蜜 봉밀 · Honey

—
Envoy 使

for binding
Geumbak Jin Bo
金箔 금박 · Gold Leaf

—
Envoy 使

gold leaf for the coating (金箔爲衣)

Total g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 3 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

Settles and quiets the Heart spirit in a convulsing child

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Fright wind with the Heart spirit unsettled (驚風)

Biomedical correlates

Convulsion in a child — historical management
Recorded for historical reference only

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治驚風, 鎭安心神. 全蝎七箇(以薄荷葉包裹, 慢火灸乾), 天麻ㆍ防風ㆍ羌活ㆍ牛黃ㆍ赤茯苓ㆍ犀角ㆍ朱砂ㆍ麝香ㆍ甘草各一錢. 右爲末, 蜜丸皂子大, 金箔爲衣, 每取一二丸, 薄荷湯化下. 《入門》

Translation

Treats fright wind; settles and quiets the Heart spirit. Seven scorpions (wrapped in mint leaf and roasted dry over a slow fire); gastrodia, siler, notopterygium, ox bezoar, red poria, rhinoceros horn, cinnabar, musk and licorice, 1 don each. Powder them, bind with honey into pills the size of a soap-bean seed and coat them with gold leaf; take one or two pills dissolved in mint decoction. — Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Soa)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Ten drugs, and the one that gives the pill its name does nothing. **Gold leaf is metallic gold: it is chemically inert, it is not absorbed, and it is harmless.** It was used here because gold was understood as the heaviest and most settling thing available, and because a gilded pill looked like what it cost. Nothing in this paragraph is a warning about the gold. The rest needs the warnings. **Seven whole scorpions are the chief drug. Scorpion venom is a neurotoxin, the dried animal cannot be standardised from specimen to specimen, and the patient is a child for whom the text gives no dose by weight anywhere. It also contains cinnabar, which is mercuric sulfide. This must not be prepared.** Ox bezoar and musk are from protected animals and musk is CITES Appendix I. **The rhinoceros horn must not be used under any circumstances.** All rhinoceros species are CITES Appendix I, the trade in horn is the direct cause of their collapse, and the horn is keratin — the same protein as fingernail — with no pharmacological activity to justify any of it. Where a modern reader wants the cooling action the formula asks of it, 水牛角 is the substitution the trade itself now makes. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.