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

Scissor Grass Powder

Jeoncho-san

한글 전초산 · Pinyin Jian Cao San

剪草散

剪刀草, the drug the formula is named after, has no entry in the herb list and is left out of the ingredient list; the name 剪草散 is a contraction of it. The leaf gives 輕粉一錢 after the 各五分 group rather than with the other 一錢 drugs, which looks like the order of the block it was copied from and is kept as written. 黃栢 is printed as the transcription has it, and the sesame oil is a vehicle kept in the source text. The leaf gives no interlinear notes.

Composition 構成

Sasangja She Chuang Zi
蛇床子 사상자 · Cnidium Fruit

12 g
Chief 君

蛇床子, 3 don
Hansuseok Han Shui Shi
寒水石 한수석 · Glauberite

8 g
Deputy 臣

寒水石, 2 don
Mui Wu Yi
蕪荑 무이 · Elm Fruit Paste

8 g
Deputy 臣

蕪荑, elm fruit paste, 2 don
Gyeongbun Qing Fen
輕粉 경분 · Calomel (toxic)

4 g
Deputy 臣

輕粉, calomel, 1 don · a mercury salt, toxic
Unghwang Xiong Huang
雄黃 웅황 · Realgar

2 g
Deputy 臣

雄黃, 5 fun · realgar, arsenic sulphide, toxic
Baekban Bai Fan
白礬 백반 · Alum

4 g
Assistant 佐

枯白礬, alum calcined to dryness, 1 don
Osuyu Wu Zhu Yu
吳茱萸 오수유 · Evodia

4 g
Assistant 佐

吳茱萸, 1 don
Hwangbaek Huang Bai
黃柏 황백 · Phellodendron

4 g
Assistant 佐

黃栢, 1 don
Changchul Cang Zhu
蒼朮 창출 · Atractylodes Lancea

2 g
Assistant 佐

蒼朮, 5 fun
Hubak Hou Po
厚朴 후박 · Magnolia Bark

2 g
Assistant 佐

厚朴, 5 fun

Total 50 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

Powdered, worked up with sesame oil and applied to sand scabies

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

砂疥 — sand scabies, 細如砂子, fine as grains of sand, now painful and now itching
疥多挾熱 — scabies mostly carrying heat with it

Biomedical correlates

Scabies with fine papular lesions
Papular eruption of the trunk and limbs with itch

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治砂疥. 蛇床子三錢, 寒水石ㆍ蕪荑各二錢, 剪刀草ㆍ枯白礬ㆍ吳茱萸ㆍ黃栢各一錢, 蒼朮ㆍ厚朴ㆍ雄黃各五分, 輕粉一錢. 右爲末, 香油調付. 《入門》

Translation

Treats sand scabies. Cnidium fruit 3 don; glauberite and elm fruit paste, 2 don each; scissor grass, alum calcined to dryness, evodia and phellodendron, 1 don each; atractylodes lancea, magnolia bark and realgar, 5 fun each; calomel 1 don. Powder the above and work it up with sesame oil to apply. — Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The third of the five, for 砂疥 — sand scabies, 細如砂子, fine as grains of sand, 或痛或痒, now painful and now itching. That describes the small firm papules of an ordinary infestation rather than the excoriated weeping kind, and the formula is correspondingly mild in form: a powder in sesame oil, with cnidium fruit leading and elm fruit paste and glauberite behind it. It is the one 疥 formula in this run built without sulphur, and that matters. Elm fruit paste and cnidium fruit were both used against worms and itch, and realgar and calomel are the mineral additions, but nothing in the list kills the mite. Whatever relief it gave came from the oil and the astringents on scratched skin. **Contains realgar, which is arsenic sulphide, and calomel, which is mercurous chloride, both spread in oil over broken skin where they are absorbed. This must not be prepared.** Scabies is diagnosed by finding burrows, preferably with dermoscopy, and treated with permethrin or ivermectin, contacts included. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.