Formulas · External Application 外用 · Uihak Gangmok (醫學綱目)

Realgar Powder for the Eroding Pox Sore

Unghwang-san

한글 웅황산 · Pinyin Xiong Huang San

雄黃散

The transcription writes 䧺黃散 at the leaf head and 石䧺黃 in the body, and 為 for 爲; 䧺 is on the project's variant-glyph table for 雄 and folds in the normalization table, so the name is printed 雄黃散 and the id reads from that. That fold is the whole reason this leaf needed checking: the literal string 䧺黃散 is in no entry in the database, but the folded name 雄黃散 collides with three — unghwang-san, the 綱目 emetic of 雄黃ㆍ瓜蔕ㆍ赤小豆 for chronic malaria; unghwang-san-in, the 得效 throat formula of 巴豆ㆍ乾桑黃茹ㆍ雄黃ㆍ鬱金; and unghwang-san-ongjeo, the 海藏 escharotic of 雄黃末ㆍ巴豆ㆍ乳香ㆍ沒藥 for dead flesh. This leaf is two drugs, realgar and verdigris, and verdigris appears in none of the three; it shares only the realgar with any of them and shares the source label only with the malaria formula, which it has nothing else in common with. It is therefore a fourth homonym and takes the chapter tail. Donguibogam now carries four formulas called 雄黃散. The leaf gives no 治 clause; the indication stands in the section prose, 痘癰鍼後成疳蝕瘡膿水不止, 若不治則多潰爛筋骨終成廢人, 宜用䧺黃散ㆍ綿蠒散.

Composition 構成

Unghwang Xiong Huang
雄黃 웅황 · Realgar

4 g
Chief 君

石雄黃 — realgar, an arsenic sulphide
Dongnok Tong Lu
銅綠 동록 · Verdigris

8 g
Deputy 臣

銅綠 — verdigris, a copper salt

Total 12 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

Dusted dry onto a pox abscess that has been lanced and has turned into an eroding sore with pus that will not stop

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

痘癰鍼後成疳蝕瘡 — a pox abscess that has been needled and become an eroding, eating sore
膿水不止 — pus and serum that will not stop

Biomedical correlates

Chronic infected ulcer after incision of a smallpox abscess
Osteomyelitis and tendon destruction as the feared outcome — 潰爛筋骨

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

石雄黃一錢, 銅綠二錢. 右爲末, 乾糝. 《綱目》

Translation

Realgar, 1 don; verdigris, 2 don. Make the above into a powder and dust it on dry. — Gangmok 綱目 (Donguibogam · Soa)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Two mineral powders in a 1 to 2 ratio, dusted dry. The section prose says what it is for and says it plainly: a pox abscess that has been opened with a needle and has gone on to erode, with pus that does not stop, and if it is not treated the flesh and the bone break down and the child is crippled for life. That is a description of chronic osteomyelitis and of tendon and joint destruction following a soft-tissue infection, and the prognosis the text gives for it is accurate. **Realgar is arsenic disulphide. It is arsenic.** Applied to an open eroding sore it is applied to the one surface from which arsenic is most readily absorbed, and the patient is a child. Arsenic is a confirmed human carcinogen and a multisystem poison, and there is no safe dose for an infant. **Verdigris is a copper salt, basic copper acetate or carbonate, and is also toxic — copper salts on a large denuded surface can be absorbed in quantity, and ingested copper salts cause haemolysis and liver injury.** The leaf sets no dose, no limit on how often the powder is reapplied, and no total. Neither mineral eradicates the infection. An eroding post-surgical wound with bone involvement is today treated by debridement and a prolonged course of systemic antibiotics, and most children recover; nothing dusted on the surface reaches bone. The text was right about where this ends and had nothing that could stop it. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.