Formulas · Transform Phlegm 化痰 · Manbyeong Hoechun (萬病回春)

Three Whites Pill

Sambaek-hwan

한글 삼백환 · Pinyin San Bai Wan

三白丸

Composition 構成

Banha Ban Xia
半夏 반하 · Pinellia

40 g
Chief 君

large white, used raw · toxic in the raw state
Bisang Pi Shuang
砒礵 비상 · Arsenic Trioxide

12 g
Chief 君

白砒, white arsenic, melted into the alum · highly toxic
Baekban Bai Fan
白礬 백반 · Alum

12 g
Deputy 臣

melted and the arsenic stirred into it, baked dry, pounded and fried to a sand
Unghwang Xiong Huang
雄黃 웅황 · Realgar

12 g
Assistant 佐

arsenic sulfide · toxic
Padu Ba Dou
巴豆 파두 · Croton Seed

12 g
Assistant 佐

as frost (霜) · toxic

Total 88 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

Treats roaring qi in the throat

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Wheezing with phlegm lodged in the lung

Biomedical correlates

Asthma — historical treatment

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治吼氣. 大白半夏一兩(生用), 白砒ㆍ白礬ㆍ雄黃ㆍ巴豆霜各三錢. 右將白礬熔化, 入砒末於礬內, 焙乾取出, 擂爛再炒成砂, 同前藥爲末, 薑汁麪糊和丸粟米大, 桑白皮湯呑下十丸. 《回春》 ○一名雄黃丸. 《十三方》

Translation

Treats roaring qi in the throat. Large white pinellia, 1 nyang, used raw; white arsenic, alum, realgar and croton frost, 3 don each. Melt the alum, stir the arsenic powder into it, bake it dry and take it out, pound it to a mash and fry it again to a sand, grind it to a powder with the other drugs, and make pills the size of a millet grain with ginger juice and flour paste; swallow ten down with mulberry root bark decoction. — Manbyeong Hoechun 回春 (Donguibogam · Haesu) ○ Also called Unghwang-hwan. — Sipsambang 十三方

Clinical commentary 臨床

**This must not be prepared. It contains white arsenic and realgar — two arsenic compounds — together with croton frost and raw pinellia, and it is the most poisonous formula in the chapter.** The preparation, melting the arsenic into molten alum and frying the mass to a sand, is an attempt to bind it; it does not make arsenic safe. The three whites of the name are the pinellia, the arsenic and the alum. Taken with the two 紫金丹 formulas and Duryeong-hwan above, it shows how far the 哮證 section was prepared to go: in a patient who could not lie down to sleep, an arsenic pill that stopped the attack was worth the poison, and the Hoechun formula's own claim is that after seven or eight doses the patient coughs up white phlegm and the root of the illness is cut. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.