Formulas · External Application 外用 · Sokbang (俗方)

Mulberry Ash Lye

Sanghoe-su

한글 상회수 · Pinyin Sang Hui Shui

桑灰水

The transcription writes 桒 in both the heading and the body; a collation line on this page gives 桑 for 桒, and since both fold to 桑 the normalised form is printed throughout with no conflict. The drug, 桑灰淋汁, is resolved to the 桑柴灰汁 entry, mulberry wood ash lye. The leaf gives no quantity.

Composition 構成

Sangsihoejeup Sang Chai Hui Zhi
桑柴灰汁 상시회즙 · Mulberry Wood Ash Lye

—
Chief 君

桑灰淋汁 — water dripped through mulberry ash to make a lye; caustic alkali

Total 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

An external soak and wash, not a drink
Carries pus, blood and toxic fluid out of a sore

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

瘡中膿血毒水 — pus, blood and toxic fluid inside a sore

Biomedical correlates

Suppurating wound requiring cleansing — historical folk wash

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

去瘡中膿血毒水. 桑灰淋汁浸洗. 《俗方》

Translation

Removes the pus, blood and toxic fluid from inside a sore. Drip water through mulberry ash to make a lye, and soak and wash the wound with it. — Sokbang 俗方 (Donguibogam · Ongjeo)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Two lines and one material. Water is dripped slowly through the ash of burnt mulberry wood and what comes through is used to soak and wash the sore. It is marked 俗方, a common or household formula rather than a quoted authority, and it is the shortest leaf in the washing group. What drips through wood ash is lye — potassium carbonate in solution, alkaline and soapy to the touch. That is exactly why it worked as a wash: it saponifies the fat in pus and crust and lifts them away, which is the same reason ash was used for laundry everywhere before soap, and the leaf's claim to carry out 膿血毒水 is a fair description of what an alkaline detergent does to a crusted wound. **Mulberry-ash lye is caustic and must not be put on a wound.** Wood-ash lye has no fixed strength; the same method yields anything from a liquid mild enough to feel slippery to one strong enough to burn, and there is no way to know which has been made without titrating it. An alkali burn on granulating tissue destroys the new flesh the wash was meant to protect, and alkali injuries go on penetrating after contact ends. Wounds are irrigated with sterile saline. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.