Formulas · Purge Downward 瀉下 · Uihak Immun (醫學入門)

Disperse the Lump Pill

Sogwe-hwan

한글 소괴환 · Pinyin Xiao Kuai Wan

消塊丸

Also called 硝石丸 in the Cheongeum 千金. The niter is written 硝石 here; the database registers this medicinal under 焰硝, the form used elsewhere in the Bogam.

Composition 構成

Daehwang Da Huang
大黃 대황 · Rhubarb

160 g
Chief 君 4 nyang, boiled in 3 seung of aged vinegar with constant stirring until reduced by a third
Yeomcho Yan Xiao
焰硝 염초 · Saltpetre

120 g
Deputy 臣 niter (硝石), 3 nyang
Insam Ren Shen
人蔘 인삼 · Ginseng

60 g
Assistant 佐 1.5 nyang
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

60 g
Envoy 使 1.5 nyang

Total 400 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

Purges and breaks up glomus lumps and concretions
Softens hardness with salty cold

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Glomus lumps and concretions
Hard fixed masses

Biomedical correlates

Abdominal masses of uncertain origin

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治痞塊癥瘕. 大黃四兩, 硝石三兩, 人參ㆍ甘草各一兩半. 右爲末, 陳醋三升, 置磁器內, 先納大黃煎, 不住手攪, 使微沸盡一升, 下餘藥末, 熬至可丸, 則丸如梧子大. 米飮下三十丸, 當利如雞肝惡物. 《入門》一名硝石丸. 《千金》

Translation

Treats glomus lumps and concretions. Rhubarb 4 nyang, niter 3 nyang, ginseng and licorice 1.5 nyang each. Powder them; put 3 seung of aged vinegar in a porcelain vessel, add the rhubarb first and boil, stirring without pause, until a seung has simmered away; then add the remaining powders and reduce until it can be rolled, and form pills the size of a firmiana seed. Take thirty down with rice broth; foul matter like chicken liver should be passed. Also called Chosok-hwan. — Uihak Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Jeokchwi)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Four medicinals, and two of them are there to make the other two survivable. Rhubarb and niter attack; ginseng and licorice at a nyang and a half hold the centre while they work. The vinegar reduction is not merely a binding step — vinegar is sour and astringent and enters the liver, and boiling the rhubarb in it first directs the purge toward the mass rather than straight through the bowel. The expected sign is stated plainly: foul matter resembling chicken liver should be passed. That is the same kind of observable criterion the Phlegm-Rheum chapter gives for its own accumulation formulas. **Contains a strong purgative with niter. Not suitable for self-administration and contraindicated in pregnancy.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.