Formulas · Dispel Wind 祛風 · Uihak Immun (醫學入門)

Soap-Bean Root Pill

Jogeun-hwan

한글 조근환 · Pinyin Zao Gen Wan

皂根丸

皂角樹根皮, the root bark of the soap-bean tree, is not registered as a drug of its own; it is entered under 皂角 with the part named in the prep field, which is how the corpus already handles 皂角刺, the thorn. 土茯苓湯 here is not a registered formula but a plain decoction of smilax used as the vehicle, so it is left unlinked.

Composition 構成

Jogak Zao Jiao
皂角 조각 · Gleditsia Pod

160 g
Chief 君

the root bark of the soap-bean tree (皂角樹根皮), 4 nyang — the drug the formula is named for
Danggwi Dang Gui
當歸 당귀 · Korean Angelica

80 g
Chief 君
Hwanggi Huang Qi
黃芪 황기 · Astragalus

60 g
Chief 君
Insam Ren Shen
人蔘 인삼 · Ginseng

40 g
Deputy 臣
Aeyeop Ai Ye
艾葉 애엽 · Mugwort Leaf

40 g
Deputy 臣

aged mugwort leaf (陳艾)
Mahwang Ma Huang
麻黃 마황 · Ephedra

20 g
Assistant 佐
Tobongnyeong Tu Fu Ling
土茯苓 토복령 · Smilax

—
Envoy 使

decocted as the vehicle the pills are washed down with

Total 400 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 plum-blossom sores that have turned into stubborn tinea (頑癬)
Fifty pills at a dose, washed down with a decoction of smilax

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Wind toxin lodged in the skin after the sores have dried into scaly patches
Qi and blood too depleted to push the toxin out

Biomedical correlates

Late syphilitic skin lesions — historical treatment
Chronic scaling dermatosis

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治楊梅瘡成頑癬. 當歸二兩, 黃芪一兩半, 人參ㆍ陳艾各一兩, 麻黃五錢, 皂角樹根皮四兩. 右爲末, 蜜丸梧子大, 土茯苓湯下五十丸. 《入門》

Translation

Treats plum-blossom sores that have turned into stubborn tinea. Tangkuei 2 nyang, astragalus 1 nyang 5 don, ginseng and aged mugwort leaf 1 nyang each, ephedra 5 don, the root bark of the soap-bean tree 4 nyang. Grind to powder, bind with honey into pills the size of a seed of the parasol tree, and take fifty pills washed down with a decoction of smilax. — Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The composition is not what the name leads you to expect. Four of the six drugs are the supplementing group — tangkuei, astragalus, ginseng and aged mugwort — and only ephedra and the soap-bean root bark are working on the skin. That is deliberate: the chapter reads a sore that has dried into a stubborn scaly patch as one the body no longer has the strength to expel, so it builds up the qi and blood and gives the wind a single opening drug to leave by. Four nyang of the root bark, the heaviest item, is what the formula is named after. The sores of late syphilis do come and go on their own, and a honey pill taken fifty at a time over months would have been credited with whatever remission followed. The smilax decoction used to swallow the pills is the same drug that runs through this whole section as its specific. **Ephedra (麻黃) raises blood pressure and heart rate and is unsafe in heart disease, hypertension and thyroid disease; it is a controlled substance in many jurisdictions.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.