Formulas · External Application 外用 · Sokbang (俗方)

Salt Water Wash

Yeom-tang

한글 염탕 · Pinyin Yan Tang

鹽湯

The transcription writes both the heading and the body with a vulgar block-print variant of 鹽; the normalised 鹽湯 is printed. The leaf gives neither a weight of salt nor a water measure, only the instruction to wash warm two or three times daily, so the single ingredient carries no gram figure. 癕 is printed as 癰 and 温 as 溫.

Composition 構成

Yeom Yan
鹽 염 · Salt

—
Chief 君

dissolved in warm water for the wash; no quantity given

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 wash, not a drink — warm salt water used on the swelling two or three times a day

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

癰疽毒腫 — abscesses and toxic swellings

Biomedical correlates

Draining abscess or inflamed swelling — warm saline bathing
Suppurating wound requiring irrigation

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

溫洗癰疽毒腫, 日二三次最妙. 《俗方》

Translation

Wash abscesses and toxic swellings with it warm, two or three times a day — most effective. — Sokbang 俗方 (Donguibogam · Ongjeo)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The shortest leaf in the chapter: warm salt water, used on the swelling two or three times a day. Like 桑灰水 it is marked 俗方, the household remedy rather than the quoted authority, and it is printed because it was what people actually did. Of everything in the washing group this is the one that has lasted unchanged. Warm saline soaks and irrigation are still standard for a draining wound or an inflamed swelling, still done two or three times a day, and still for the reasons implied here — the warmth brings blood to the area and eases the aching, and salt water carries discharge away without stinging raw tissue the way plain water or a strong antiseptic does. 最妙 is, for once, not an exaggeration. The one distinction to keep is the one the chapter itself keeps: this is for washing, not for drinking. Strong salt water taken by mouth is dangerous, and the 鹽湯 of the emetic sections is a different thing used for a different purpose. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.