Deer Antler Gruel

Nokgak-juk

한글 녹각죽 · Pinyin Lu Jiao Zhou

鹿角粥

This leaf and 山芋粥 after it sit under section 5.3.46 辟果樹上烏鳥法, keeping crows off fruit trees, and have nothing whatever to do with crows or with fruit. The section is one of the very short miscellaneous notes near the end of the chapter and the two gruel leaves have simply been placed after it; they belong to no section of their own. 𥂁 is printed 鹽 by the usual normalisation. The source label ≪活心≫ is not in the corpus's list of romanised source labels; it is taken as the 活人心 and romanised Hwalsim.

Composition 構成

Nokgaksang Lu Jiao Shuang
鹿角霜 녹각상 · Deer Antler Residue

20 g
Chief 君

鹿角霜粉, the powdered residue left after the antler has been boiled for glue, 5 don · CITES-listed deer material
Yeom Yan
鹽 염 · Salt

—
Assistant 佐

白鹽, one spoonful
Baekjuk Bai Zhou
白粥 백죽 · Plain Rice Congee

—
Envoy 使

白粥, one bowl of plain white rice gruel, the vehicle

Total g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 2 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

Greatly supplements the marrow and the brain
Firms the teeth, boosts the essence and blood, and secures the original qi
Stirred into a bowl of white gruel with a spoonful of salt and eaten

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Depletion of marrow and essence
Loose teeth and failing original qi

Biomedical correlates

Dietary supplement in debility — historical
Age-related tooth loosening — historical indication

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

大能補髓腦, 牢牙齒, 益精血, 固元氣. 每白粥一椀, 入鹿角霜粉五錢, 白鹽一匙, 攪勻服. 《活心》

Translation

Greatly able to supplement the marrow and the brain, to firm the teeth, to boost the essence and blood and to secure the original qi. To each bowl of white gruel add 5 don of powdered deer-antler ash and one spoonful of white salt, stir it even and eat it. — Hwalsim 活心 (Donguibogam · Japbang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

A food, not a medicine: a bowl of plain rice gruel with a spoonful of salt and five don of antler ash stirred through it. 鹿角霜 is what is left of the antler after it has been boiled down for glue, so it is the cheap by-product of 鹿角膠 and mostly calcium phosphate and collagen residue. The indications follow from that reading rather than from any observed effect: bone material for the marrow and the brain, and for the teeth. Read as nutrition it is unremarkable and harmless — gruel, salt and a mineral powder. The claim that it secures the 元氣 is of a piece with the rest of the 救荒 and 斷穀 material this chapter collects, where food and medicine are not kept apart. **鹿角霜 is a deer material from a CITES-listed group.** Nothing in it firms a loose tooth; periodontal disease is the usual reason teeth loosen and it is treated by cleaning and by dentistry. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.