Formulas · Tonify Blood 補血 · Bonsabang (本事方)

Selfheal Powder

Hagocho-san

한글 하고초산 · Pinyin Xia Ku Cao San

夏枯草散

The alias 補肝散 collides with three other formulas of that name in this chapter and the database; the entry is registered under its own first name.

Composition 構成

Hagocho Xia Ku Cao
夏枯草 하고초 · Selfheal

80 g
Chief 君

2 nyang
Hyangbuja Xiang Fu
香附子 향부자 · Cyperus

40 g
Deputy 臣

1 nyang
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

20 g
Envoy 使

5 don

Total 140 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 liver vacuity with pain of the eyeball
cold tearing that will not stop
and shrinking from daylight

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Liver vacuity with eye pain worse at night

Biomedical correlates

Ocular pain with photophobia
Scleritis

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

一名補肝散. 治肝虛目睛疼, 冷淚不止, 怕日羞明. 夏枯草二兩, 香附子一兩, 甘草五錢. 右爲細末, 每二錢, 食後茶淸調下. 夏枯草若黑睛疼至夜甚者最效. 蓋黑珠連目系, 屬厥陰之經, 此物有補養厥陰血脉之功, 故其效如神. 《本事》

Translation

Also called Supplement the Liver Powder. Treats liver vacuity with pain of the eyeball, cold tearing that will not stop, and shrinking from daylight. Selfheal 2 nyang; cyperus 1 nyang; licorice 5 don. Grind to a fine powder and take 2 don at a time after food, stirred into clear tea. Selfheal is most effective where the black of the eye hurts and the pain is worst towards night — for the black pearl is continuous with the eye's connecting vessel and belongs to the reverting yin channel, and this drug has the power to supplement and nourish the reverting yin blood vessels, so that its effect is like a spirit's. — Bonsabang 本事 (Donguibogam · An)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Three medicinals, and the closing argument is why it has lasted: pain in the black of the eye that is worst towards night, treated with selfheal because the black pearl belongs to the liver channel and selfheal nourishes that channel's blood. Pain worse at night is a real marker of deep ocular inflammation, and this is the chapter's one formula aimed squarely at it. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.