Formulas · Purge Downward 瀉下 · Dansim (丹心)

Rhubarb and Licorice Powder

Hwanggam-san

한글 황감산 · Pinyin Huang Gan San

黃甘散

The transcription writes 癕 for 癰 and 為 for 爲; the standard forms are printed.

Composition 構成

Daehwang Da Huang
大黃 대황 · Rhubarb

4 g
Chief 君

半生半熟, half raw and half cooked, equal parts
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

4 g
Envoy 使

甘草節, the nodes, equal parts

Total 8 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 an abscess arising from an external cause in the four Qi
Taken in wine on an empty stomach and pushed to the point of a loose stool

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Abscess and deep-rooted abscess (癰疽) from an external cause in the four Qi (外因四氣)
Repletion pattern with the toxin to be taken downward

Biomedical correlates

Skin and soft-tissue infection with constipation and systemic heat

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治外因四氣生癰疽. 大黃(半生半熟)ㆍ甘草節各等分. 右爲末. 每二錢, 空心酒調服, 以利爲度. 《丹心》

Translation

Treats an abscess and deep-rooted abscess produced by an external cause among the four Qi. Rhubarb, half raw and half cooked, and licorice nodes, equal parts. Powder the above. Two don to a dose, stirred into wine and taken on an empty stomach, taking a loose stool as the measure. — Dansim 丹心 (Donguibogam · Ongjeo)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Two drugs, and the preparation of the first is the whole formula. 半生半熟 — half the rhubarb raw and half of it cooked — is a deliberate split: raw rhubarb purges hard and fast, processed rhubarb clears heat and moves Blood with much less downward force, and taking both at once is meant to get the clearing without losing the purge. Licorice nodes, the knotty parts of the root, are the chapter's standing drug for sores and here they also blunt the rhubarb. 以利爲度, taking a loose stool as the measure, means the dose is titrated by the patient's response rather than fixed; the chapter names this formula and 連翹敗毒散 together for the abscess whose cause is external, in the four Qi, as against the formulas for an internal cause in the seven affects (遠志酒, 獨勝散) and for the causes that are neither (國老膏, 槐花酒). It belongs to the draining half of the chapter, with 內疏黃連湯 and 五利大黃湯, and reads as the exact opposite of the 托裏 formulas. Rhubarb pushed to diarrhoea causes fluid and potassium loss, which matters in anyone already febrile or elderly, and a purgative does not treat an infection. A spreading or systemically unwell abscess needs antibiotics and drainage. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.