Formulas · External Application 外用 · Uihak Immun (醫學入門)

Silkworm Cocoon Powder

Jamgyeon-san

한글 잠견산 · Pinyin Can Jian San

蠶繭散

The transcription prints 蠶蠒散 at the head of this leaf and 蚕蠒散 in the 糝貼藥 list at 034b; the corpus prints 蠶 for the silkworm and 繭 for the cocoon, as at 透膿散, so 蠶繭散 is printed above. 蠶繭 is registered as jamgyeon. 並 and 煆 are left as the transcription prints them, both being forms the corpus keeps. Three cocoons are a count, so no gram figure is entered for them.

Composition 構成

Jamgyeon Can Jian
蠶繭 잠견 · Silkworm Cocoon

—
Chief 君

蠶繭三箇 — three cocoons, calcined in the fire with the others
Baekchul Bai Zhu
白朮 백출 · White Atractylodes

4 g
Deputy 臣

calcined in the fire (火煆)
Bisang Pi Shuang
砒礵 비상 · Arsenic Trioxide

4 g
Deputy 臣

砒礵, calcined in the fire (火煆) — arsenic trioxide, severely toxic

Total 8 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 1 ingredient 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

Treats scrofula
The three drugs calcined together in the fire and powdered
Dusted on the ulcerated flesh; in three days the node drops away

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

瘰癧 — scrofula with ulcerated flesh
爛肉 — the broken-down flesh of a discharging node

Biomedical correlates

Caseating tuberculous lymph node with an open ulcer — a historical escharotic dusting powder

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治瘰癧. 蠶繭三箇, 白朮ㆍ砒礵各一錢. 右並火煆爲末, 糝爛肉上, 三日其核卽下. 《入門》

Translation

Treats scrofula. Silkworm cocoons three; white atractylodes and arsenic 1 don each. Calcine all of them together in the fire and powder them; dust it on the ulcerated flesh, and in three days the node drops away. — Uihak Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Three drugs, two of which are the medicine and one of which is almost certainly ballast. Three silkworm cocoons, a don of white atractylodes and a don of arsenic are calcined together in the fire and the ash is dusted straight onto the broken flesh of the node. The claim is exact and short: 三日其核卽下, in three days the node drops away. It would. Arsenic trioxide on an open ulcer is a powerful escharotic and will slough a mass off its bed in about that time, which is why the 糝貼藥 section lists this first among the dusting powders. It is the same logic as 金寶膏 at a cruder level, and the chapter's own 禁忌法 immediately afterwards warns against exactly this — 切忌毒藥點蝕, strictly avoid corroding it away with poisonous drugs, and anyone who does will die. **Arsenic trioxide dusted on an open wound is absorbed systemically and is lethal; there is no safe quantity for this use. This must not be prepared.** The node that drops away is a caseating tuberculous lymph node, and removing it leaves the infection in place: the next node in the chain follows, and the sinus goes on draining until the mycobacterium is treated. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.