Formulas · External Application 外用 · Jikji (直指)

Realgar Ointment

Unghwang-go

한글 웅황고 · Pinyin Xiong Huang Gao

雄黃膏

油髮灰 is entered under 頭髮 by way of the 油髮 and 髮灰 aliases, as the 直指's 穿山甲散 does in this corpus. The sesame oil carries a stated weight and is melted into the ointment itself, so it is listed as an ingredient rather than left as a vehicle. The leaf gives no interlinear notes.

Composition 構成

Baldu Tou Fa
頭髮 발두 · Human Hair

20 g
Chief 君

油髮灰, oily hair burnt to ash, 5 don · human material
Hwangnap Huang La
黃蠟 황랍 · Beeswax

20 g
Chief 君

黃蠟, beeswax, 5 don
Unghwang Xiong Huang
雄黃 웅황 · Realgar

10 g
Deputy 臣

雄黃末, powdered, 2 don 5 fun · realgar, arsenic sulphide, toxic
Yuhwang Liu Huang
硫黃 유황 · Sulphur

10 g
Deputy 臣

硫黃末, powdered, 2 don 5 fun
Cheongyu Qing You
淸油 청유 · Clear Sesame Oil

80 g
Assistant 佐

香油, sesame oil, 2 nyang — the base of the ointment

Total 140 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

Melted together into an ointment and laid on a cold fistula of many years
The second of the section's three 外治 preparations

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

久年冷瘻 — a cold fistula of many years
冷漏多在腿足之間 — the cold fistula, mostly between thigh and foot, heat at first and cold in the end

Biomedical correlates

Chronic indolent sinus of the leg or foot — historical ointment dressing
Chronic leg ulcer with a tract

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治久年冷瘻. 油髮灰ㆍ黃蠟各五錢, 雄黃末ㆍ硫黃末各二錢半, 香油二兩. 右和勻熔化, 候成膏貼之. 《直指》

Translation

Treats a cold fistula of many years. Oily hair burnt to ash and beeswax, 5 don each; powdered realgar and powdered sulphur, 2 don 5 fun each; sesame oil 2 nyang. Mix the above evenly and melt them down; when it has set to an ointment, lay it on. — Jikji 直指 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

A true ointment rather than a powder: wax and two nyang of sesame oil as the base, with hair ash for body and a quarter-ounce each of realgar and sulphur as the active pair. It is the only preparation in the 疳瘻 section that is melted and set, and it is aimed specifically at the 冷瘻, the cold fistula that the 丹心 places 多在腿足之間, between thigh and foot. An oil-and-wax ointment over a chronic tract is occlusive, and occlusion on a chronic ulcer is not a bad idea: it keeps the surface moist and protects the edge. That much of the formula is defensible. The sulphur would have had some antibacterial effect at the surface. **Contains realgar, which is arsenic sulphide. Arsenic is absorbed through broken skin and is cumulatively poisonous, and an occlusive ointment left on an open sore is the dressing most likely to drive it in. It also contains ash of human hair applied to an open wound. This must not be prepared.** A chronic cold sinus between thigh and foot in particular needs the vascular supply assessed before anything is laid on it — an indolent ulcer in a leg with poor arterial inflow does not heal under any dressing. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.