Formulas · External Application 外用 · Jeongui (精義)

Sore-Turning Stick

Hoechang-jeongja

한글 회창정자 · Pinyin Hui Chuang Ding Zi

回瘡錠子

The transcription writes the name 廻瘡錠子 and the alternative name 廻生錠子; the corpus prints 回 throughout and the corpus forms are given above. 絍, the word for working the stick down into the sore, is printed as the transcription has it. The interlinear 粳米大, giving the size of the toad-venom grains, is set in parentheses, the corpus reserving 《》 for source labels. 麪糊, the wheat-flour paste that binds the stick, is a binder and is kept in the source text only. The seven croton kernels and seven grains of toad venom are count items and carry no gram figure.

Composition 構成

Choo Cao Wu
草烏 초오 · Wild Aconite

40 g
Chief 君

草烏一兩 — raw aconite root, violently toxic
Padu Ba Dou
巴豆 파두 · Croton Seed

—
Chief 君

巴豆肉七箇 — seven croton kernels, a count item; violently toxic
Seomsu Chan Su
蟾酥 섬수 · Toad Venom

—
Chief 君

蟾酥(粳米大) 七粒 — seven grains of toad venom the size of a rice grain, a count item; cardiotoxic
Sahyang She Xiang
麝香 사향 · Musk (prohibited)

1 g
Assistant 佐

麝香一字, a quarter of a don — musk, a CITES-protected material

Total 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

A moulded stick pushed into the needled head of a 疔, not swallowed
Set into the four sides of the sore as well in a severe case
Held to loosen and lift out the root of the 疔 within two or three days
Covered over with a plaster once the stick is in place

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

疔疽 — the nail-sore and the deep-rooted sore
A 疔 that has been needled at the head until it hurts and bleeds
疔根 — a root of the sore seated in the flesh

Biomedical correlates

Furuncle or carbuncle with a necrotic core — historical escharotic insert
Deep follicular abscess before incision and drainage

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治疔疽神效. 草烏一兩, 巴豆肉七箇, 蟾酥(粳米大) 七粒, 麝香一字. 右爲末, 麪糊和作錠子. 先鍼瘡頭至痛見血, 用此錠絍入, 以膏藥貼之. 重者於瘡四圍絍之, 二三日疔根自拔出. 《精義》 ○一名回生錠子. 《丹心》

Translation

Treats the nail-sore and the deep-rooted sore, with marvellous effect. Raw aconite root 1 nyang; croton kernel, seven pieces; toad venom, seven grains the size of a rice grain; musk, one ja, a quarter of a don. Powder the above and work it up with wheat-flour paste into moulded sticks. First needle the head of the sore until it hurts and blood is seen, then work this stick into it and lay a plaster over. In a severe case set sticks into the four sides of the sore as well, and in two or three days the root of the nail-sore lifts itself out. — Jeongui 精義 ○ Also called Hoesaeng-jeongja, the Life-Restoring Stick. — Dansim 丹心 (Donguibogam · Ongjeo)

Clinical commentary 臨床

A 錠子 is not a pill. It is a stick of drug moulded with flour paste, stiff enough to be pushed down a wound track, and this one is the first of the four the chapter gives for 疔. The procedure is explicit and is the whole of the formula: needle the head of the sore until it hurts and bleeds, drive the stick in, cover it with a plaster, and wait two or three days for the core to separate. In a bad case sticks go into the four sides as well. This is how a 疔 was treated before excision — a caustic left in the wound to destroy the core so that it could be lifted out. The drugs are chosen for exactly that. Aconite root at a full nyang is the bulk of it, with croton kernel, toad venom and musk worked in. 天南星, 砒礵 and 黃丹 appear in the companion sticks; here the destructive work falls to the aconite and the croton. The 丹心 note at the foot gives the alternative name 回生錠子, the life-restoring stick, which tells us how the method was regarded. **Contains raw aconite root, which is cardiotoxic and has killed at small doses, croton kernel, which is a violent vesicant, and toad venom, which contains cardiac-glycoside bufadienolides. Musk is a CITES-protected material. This must not be prepared.** All three poisons are being placed inside an open wound, where absorption is direct and not controllable. The clinical problem the stick addresses is real — a furuncle or carbuncle with a necrotic core does need the core removed — and it is answered now by incision and drainage with sharp debridement, under antibiotic cover where there is surrounding cellulitis. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.