Formulas · External Application 外用 · Seui Deukhyobang (世醫得效方)

Pig's Head Powder

Jeodu-san

한글 저두산 · Pinyin Zhu Tou San

猪頭散

There is no pig in the formula; the last clause of the leaf explains the name, 人以猪頭爲謝, 故名之. The transcription prints a space in 巴豆肉三七粒.

Composition 構成

Nobongbang Lu Feng Fang
露蜂房 노봉방 · Hornet's Nest

—
Chief 君

野蜂房, two or three wild wasp nests, burnt and powdered
Padu Ba Dou
巴豆 파두 · Croton Seed

—
Deputy 臣

巴豆肉, 21 kernels, boiled in the oil and discarded · severely toxic
Baekban Bai Fan
白礬 백반 · Alum

—
Assistant 佐

枯白礬, calcined and powdered — the alternative given at the end of the leaf
Cheongyu Qing You
淸油 청유 · Clear Sesame Oil

—
Envoy 使

淸油, brought to the boil three times with the croton, then strained

Total 0 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 4 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

Treats the soft boil that heals and then comes back
Burnt hornet's nest stirred into croton-infused oil and applied

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

軟癤 that heals and recurs
A recurring small boil the size of a sour jujube

Biomedical correlates

Recurrent furunculosis — external use
Recurrent folliculitis

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治軟癤愈而復作. 野蜂房二三箇, 燒爲末, 另用巴豆肉三七粒, 淸油煎三沸, 去豆取油, 調蜂房末付之, 立效. ○又枯白礬末, 油調付亦效. 此方療病有效, 人以猪頭爲謝, 故名之. 《得效》

Translation

Treats the soft boil that heals and then comes back. Two or three wild wasp nests, burnt and powdered; separately take 21 croton kernels, bring them to the boil three times in clear oil, discard the beans and keep the oil, stir the powdered nest into it and apply; it takes effect at once. ○ Calcined alum, powdered and applied stirred with oil, also works. This formula cured the disease, and people gave a pig's head in thanks, and so it was named. — Deukhyo 得效 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Croton kernels boiled three times in sesame oil and then thrown away, so only the infused oil is kept, with burnt wasp nest stirred in. A calcined alum paste is offered as an alternative, which is a fair sign of how much the first method was trusted. The name is the best thing in the leaf: it is called Pig's Head Powder because that is what grateful patients brought. 軟癤 at 2.18 is defined plainly — 痤小癤也, the small boil, the size of a sour jujube or a bean, red outside with pus and blood within. That is a furuncle, and 愈而復作, healing and coming back, is recurrent furunculosis, which in modern terms usually means staphylococcal carriage in the nose or skin folds. Treating the individual boil cannot end it; decolonisation and attention to the carrier sites can. **Croton oil is severely toxic and must not be used.** Discarding the kernels does not make the oil safe — phorbol esters pass into it, which is exactly why it was chosen: croton oil is a violent vesicant that raises blisters on contact, and it is a classical laboratory tumour promoter. The alum alternative at the end of the leaf is the harmless half of this entry. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.