Honeysuckle and Angelica Powder

Ten drugs, half of them cooling and half supporting, and the formula closes the 疔疽 run on a quieter note than anything before it. Honeysuckle flower leads at 2 don with gleditsia thorn behind it at a don and a half; astragalus, Danggui, Dahurian angelica root and licorice follow at a don each, and areca nut, Cheongung, saposhnikovia and trichosanthes root close at five fun. The astragalus and Danggui are the 托裏 arm of the chapter in miniature — supporting the interior so that the sore can close — set against the honeysuckle and gleditsia thorn, which are its 消毒 arm. The 拔疔法 sub-section tells us when it is given: 拔去後以金銀白芷散調之 — after the root has been drawn out, settle the case with this. So it is aftercare rather than attack, which explains the mildness, and 連渣服, taking it dregs and all, keeps the whole of a small dose in the patient. This is one of the two leaves in the 疔疽 group that a modern reader can read without alarm. Nothing in it is toxic and nothing in it is antibacterial either; what it describes is the ordinary business of looking after someone recovering from a drained deep infection, and the supportive half of the formula is aimed at the same thing nutrition and wound care are aimed at now. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.