Astragalus Decoction to Support the Interior (Bone Abscess Formula)

The same name and the same 托裏 intention as the Jeongui formula of the upper part, but a different thing on the page. That one is a straight Qi-and-Blood tonic for the period after rupture; this one is a channel-division formula for a bone abscess that has not yet opened, and it is the partner of 羌活防己湯 — between them the two leaves cover all five divisions the chapter recognises in the leg. Bupleurum and cinnamon bark guide into the lesser-yang, angelica dahurica and cimicifuga into the yang-brightness, and the weighting again puts the guiding drugs above the rest. Astragalus gives it the name but sits at 1 don, in the body of the formula rather than at its head; the heaviest drug is the tail of the Korean angelica root, which is the part used when Blood is to be moved rather than nourished. Forsythia and burdock seed resolve toxin, phellodendron drains the damp heat that the chapter reads into a leg lesion, and licorice closes it. So this is 托裏 in the weaker sense — holding the person up while the sore is brought to the surface — not supplementation for its own sake. The clinical reading is the same as for the rest of the group. A deep abscess at bone requires imaging, cultures, prolonged antibiotics and usually surgery. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.