Costus and Coptis Pill

Hyangryeon-hwan

한글 향련환 · Pinyin Xiang Lian Wan

香連丸

Composition 構成

Hwangryeon Huang Lian
黃連 황련 · Coptis

40 g
Chief 君

steeped overnight in water with the evodia and stir-fried with it
Osuyu Wu Zhu Yu
吳茱萸 오수유 · Evodia

20 g
Deputy 臣

steeped and fried with the coptis
Mokhyang Mu Xiang
木香 목향 · Costus Root

10 g
Deputy 臣

Total 70 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 red and white dysentery of pus and blood with abdominal pain
Treats all the dysenteries

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Damp heat dysentery with qi stagnation and pain

Biomedical correlates

Bacillary dysentery
Acute colitis

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治赤白膿血下痢腹痛及一切諸痢. 黃連一兩, 吳茱萸五錢, 水浸一宿, 同炒, 去茱萸; 木香二錢半. 右爲末, 醋糊和丸梧子大, 空心, 米飮下二三十丸. 《直指》

Translation

Treats red and white dysentery of pus and blood with abdominal pain, and all the dysenteries. Coptis, 1 nyang, and evodia, 5 don, steeped in water overnight and stir-fried together, the evodia then discarded; costus root, 2.5 don. Powder, make pills with vinegar paste the size of a paulownia seed, and take twenty or thirty on an empty stomach in rice water. — Jikji 直指 (Donguibogam · Daebyeon)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Two drugs in the finished pill and the best-known dysentery formula in the tradition. The evodia is a processing agent, not an ingredient: it is steeped and fried with the coptis to take the edge off its coldness and then thrown away, leaving a coptis that clears without chilling the stomach. Costus root for the tenesmus. Berberine is still used for bacterial diarrhoea, and this is its oldest convenient dosage form. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.