Formulas · Warm the Interior 溫裏 · Uihak Immun (醫學入門)

Tsaoko and Aconite Decoction

Gwabu-tang

한글 과부탕 · Pinyin Guo Fu Tang

果附湯

Composition 構成

Chogwa Cao Guo
草果 초과 · Tsaoko Fruit

10 g
Chief 君
Buja Fu Zi
附子 부자 · Prepared Aconite

10 g
Chief 君

blast-fried (炮)
Saenggang Sheng Jiang
生薑 생강 · Fresh Ginger

—
Envoy 使

seven slices
Daejo Da Zao
大棗 대조 · Jujube

—
Envoy 使

two jujubes

Total 20 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

Warms Spleen cold in cold malaria
Breaks a shuddering chill with blast-fried aconite

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Cold malaria (寒瘧) arising from Spleen cold
Green-blue face with shuddering cold

Biomedical correlates

Malaria with severe rigors and peripheral cyanosis
Chronic chills with digestive weakness

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治脾寒瘧疾, 面靑振寒. 草果ㆍ附子(炮) 各二錢半. 右剉, 作一貼, 入薑七棗二, 水煎服. 《入門》

Translation

Treats the malarial disease of Spleen cold, with a green-blue face and shuddering cold. Tsaoko and blast-fried aconite, 2 don 5 fun each. Cut up, make one packet, add seven slices of ginger and two jujubes, and decoct in water and take. — Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Haehak)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Two drugs at 2 don 5 fun each and nothing else but ginger and dates — the plainest warming prescription in the chapter. The indication is read off the face: a green-blue complexion with shuddering cold, which the Bogam takes as Spleen cold rather than as a chill at the exterior. Seven slices of ginger rather than the usual three say the same thing again, and the name says it a third time by naming only the two drugs. Tsaoko is this chapter's standing drug for cold malaria, appearing in Chogwa-eum and in the additions to Sijin-tang as well. The aconite here answers the depth of the cold rather than the malaria itself, which is why the formula sits under cold malaria and not under the malaria-cutting prescriptions. **Contains aconite, which is toxic. This must not be prepared.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.