Formulas · Invigorate Blood 活血祛瘀 · Hwaje Gukbang (和劑局方)

Elm Bark Decoction

Yubaekpi-tang

한글 유백피탕 · Pinyin Yu Bai Pi Tang

楡白皮湯

Cut and made into one packet, decocted in water and taken. **Note on modern practice: prolonged or obstructed labor requires obstetric management. Achyranthes and mallow seed are classically contraindicated in pregnancy precisely because they move downward — they are used here only at the point of birth. Recorded as classical text.**

Composition 構成

Yubaekpi Yu Bai Pi
楡白皮 유백피 · Elm Bark

8 g
Chief 君
Donggyuja Dong Kui Zi
冬葵子 동규자 · Mallow Seed

8 g
Chief 君
Gumaek Qu Mai
瞿麥 구맥 · Dianthus

8 g
Deputy 臣
Useul Niu Xi
牛膝 우슬 · Achyranthes

6 g
Deputy 臣
Main Ma Ren
麻仁 마인 · Hemp Seed

6 g
Assistant 佐 hulled
Moktong Mu Tong
木通 목통 · Akebia

4 g
Assistant 佐

Total 40 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

Lubricates a birth passage gone dry
Frees the way downward with slippery and descending herbs

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Hard birth with the membranes dry and nothing descending (産難胞乾不下)
Labor stalled from dryness rather than from malposition
Obstructed birth of the dry type

Biomedical correlates

Prolonged labor — historical management
Obstructed labor
Obstetric care of the era

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治産難, 胞乾不下. 楡白皮ㆍ冬葵子ㆍ瞿麥各二錢, 牛膝ㆍ麻仁(去殼) 各一錢半, 木通一錢. 右剉, 作一貼, 水煎服. 《局方》

Translation

Treats a hard birth with the membranes dry and nothing descending. Elm bark, mallow seed, and fringed pink, 2 don each; achyranthes and hulled hemp seed, 1.5 don each; akebia 1 don. Cut the above, make one packet, decoct in water and take. — Gukbang 局方 (Donguibogam · Buin)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Every herb in it is slippery or descending — elm bark and mallow seed for the mucilage, hemp seed for the oil, achyranthes and akebia to conduct downward. The indication names dryness rather than obstruction as the problem, which is a distinction worth noticing: the chapter does not treat every stalled birth as something to be forced, and here it reaches for lubrication instead. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.