寶鑑Bogam

Formulas · Clear Heat 淸熱 · Manbyeong Hoechun (萬病回春)

Amber Powder for Scrofula

Hobak-san

한글 호박산 (제창)  ·  Pinyin Hu Po San

琥珀散

The Donguibogam carries three leaves called 琥珀散 and they are unrelated. The 入門 one for 尿血, registered as hobak-san, is amber alone in a juncus and mint decoction; the 丹心 one for 砂石淋, registered as hobak-san-sarim, is 琥珀ㆍ滑石ㆍ木通ㆍ當歸ㆍ木香ㆍ鬱金ㆍ萹蓄. This leaf is the 回春 formula of the 瘰癧 section, twelve drugs with the morning-glory seed and the blister beetle at its head, so it takes the chapter tail. 白殭蚕 is printed as the transcription has it and as the most recent chapters of the corpus do; 殭蚕 stands at 31 places in the corpus's source texts against 27 for 殭蠶, and all three instances in the abscesses chapter are 蚕. The three drugs at 五分 — 枳殼ㆍ赤芍藥ㆍ柴胡, 2 g each against 40 g for the chief drugs in a batch divided into only six packets — are out of all proportion and are very likely a transcription or block-cutting error for 五錢; they are printed as transcribed and flagged here.

Composition 構成

Total 254 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

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

  • 瘰癧結核 — scrofula and nodes
  • 內消神效 — dispersal from within, with marvellous effect

Biomedical correlates

  • Tuberculous lymphadenitis — scrofula

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治瘰癧結核, 內消神效. 白丑(頭末)ㆍ滑石ㆍ白殭蚕ㆍ黃芩 各一兩, 木通ㆍ連翹 各七錢, 枳殼ㆍ赤芍藥ㆍ柴胡 各五分, 斑猫 三錢(去翅足炒), 甘草 三錢, 琥珀 二錢. 右剉, 分作六貼, 水煎服. 《回春》

Translation

Treats scrofula and nodes, dispersing them from within with marvellous effect. White morning-glory seed (the first-grade powder), talc, stiff silkworm and scutellaria, 1 nyang each; akebia and forsythia, 7 don each; bitter orange peel, red peony and bupleurum, 5 fun each; blister beetle 3 don (wings and feet removed and fried); licorice 3 don; amber 2 don. Cut the above up, divide into six packets, and decoct in water and drink. — Hoechun 回春 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The amber the formula is named for is two don of twelve drugs and the least of them by weight. What drives it is a nyang of white morning-glory seed, in its most active 頭末 fraction, and three don of trimmed and fried blister beetle — a purgative and a vesicant — with talc and akebia to carry the result out through the urine, scutellaria and forsythia against the heat, and stiff silkworm for the node itself. 內消神效, dispersal from within with marvellous effect, is the claim, and the route is the one the 直指 passage sets out: 但毒根之行小便必澁當以木通滑石輩導之, when the root of the toxin travels the urine must turn scanty, and akebia and talc and their like should guide it along. Which is to say the formula is designed around the expectation that it will irritate the bladder, and includes the drugs to manage that. 瘰癧 is tuberculous lymphadenitis. **Contains blister beetle, cantharidin — a severe vesicant that is acutely nephrotoxic and corrosive to the gut, with a narrow margin between a medicinal and a fatal dose — and white morning-glory seed, a drastic purgative. The scanty, painful urine this formula anticipates is haemorrhagic cystitis, which is injury and not cure. This must not be prepared.** Scrofula is treated with multidrug antituberculous therapy. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.

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