Formulas · Transform Phlegm 化痰 · Boje Bonsabang (普濟本事方)

Croton Seed Pill

Padu-hwan

한글 파두환 · Pinyin Ba Dou Wan

巴豆丸

The croton is calcined to scorching before use, which destroys much of its purgative oil; the pill is held in the mouth and not swallowed.

Composition 構成

Padu Ba Dou
巴豆 파두 · Croton Seed

—
Chief 君

two seeds
Baekban Bai Fan
白礬 백반 · Alum

—
Deputy 臣

one lump the size of a thumb

Total 0 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

Held in the mouth to draw up phlegm in a dying patient
Opens the throat blocked by phlegm

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Wind stroke with phlegm blocking and collapse at the point of death
Phlegm congesting the throat

Biomedical correlates

Agonal phlegm obstruction
Airway obstruction

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治卒中風痰塞垂死. 巴豆二枚(去皮膜)ㆍ白礬如拇指大一塊爲末. 右二味, 瓦上煆令豆焦赤爲度, 蜜丸芡實大, 每一丸, 綿褁放患人口中近喉處, 良久吐痰立愈. 《本事》

Translation

Treats sudden wind stroke with phlegm blocking, the patient at the point of death. Croton seed, two, husk and membrane removed; alum, one lump the size of a thumb, powdered. Calcine the two on a tile until the croton is scorched red, then make honey pills the size of a euryale seed; wrap one in cotton wool and place it in the patient's mouth near the throat, and after a good while the phlegm is vomited up and recovery is immediate. — Boje Bonsabang 本事 (Donguibogam · Pung)

Clinical commentary 臨床

**This must not be prepared.** Croton seed is a violent irritant purgative whose oil raises blisters on skin contact and whose seeds are lethal in small numbers; the two or three fatal seeds of folk report are in the same range as the two used here. The construction shows the compounder knew it: the seeds are scorched to destroy the oil, bound in honey, wrapped in cotton and held against the throat rather than swallowed, so that only the irritant vapour reaches the pharynx. Read as a historical record it is a careful piece of pharmacy for an agonal patient. Read as a prescription it is poisoning, and there is no modern indication for it. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.