Formulas · Regulate Qi 理氣 · Uihak Immun (醫學入門)

Birthwort Root Pill

Cheongmokhyang-won

한글 청목향원 · Pinyin Qing Mu Xiang Yuan

靑木香元

Composition 構成

Gyeonuja Qian Niu Zi
牽牛子 견우자 · Morning Glory Seed (strong)

120 g
Chief 君

黑丑頭末, the first powder, 3 nyang
Bogolji Bu Gu Zhi
補骨脂 보골지 · Psoralea

80 g
Deputy 臣

2 nyang
Piljingga Bi Cheng Qie
蓽澄茄 필징가 · Cubeb

80 g
Deputy 臣

蓽澄茄, 2 nyang
Billang Bing Lang
檳榔 빈랑 · Areca Seed

80 g
Deputy 臣

2 nyang
Mokhyang Mu Xiang
木香 목향 · Costus Root

40 g
Assistant 佐

靑木香一兩 — the bare name, which the Bogam glosses as 木香 at 草部上 1.18 (卽青木香也)
Yeom Yan
鹽 염 · Salt

—
Envoy 使

salt decoction as the draught

Total 400 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

Treats cold mounting
and bladder mounting qi with swelling

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Cold mounting with scrotal swelling

Biomedical correlates

Inguinal hernia
Hydrocele

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治寒疝及膀胱疝氣腫. 黑丑頭末三兩, 破故紙ㆍ蓽澄茄ㆍ檳榔各二兩, 靑木香一兩. 右爲末, 水丸梧子大, 空心鹽湯下五十丸. 《入門》

Translation

Treats cold mounting and bladder mounting qi with swelling. The first powder of black morning-glory seed 3 nyang; psoralea, cubeb and areca 2 nyang each; birthwort root 1 nyang. Powder them, make water pills the size of a firmiana seed, and take fifty on an empty stomach with salt decoction. — Uihak Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Jeoneum)

Clinical commentary 臨床

4.6 divides mounting into seven kinds, and the cold one is the first — swelling and pain in the scrotum that eases with warmth. Salt decoction as the draught runs through the chapter, because salt is held to lead medicinals to the kidney. **The 靑木香 of this formula is costus, not birthwort — but the name now belongs to the birthwort, and that is where the danger is.** The Bogam glosses the bare name at 草部上 1.18: 木香 … 卽青木香也, 形如枯骨者良 — shaped like dry bone, which is a costus root. Where it means the root of 쥐방울덩굴 (Aristolochia) it writes the name with a qualifier, 草部下 1.112.1: 名土靑木香, 又名獨行根. The companions here are a qi-moving set that costus belongs to — areca, cubeb, psoralea, morning-glory seed — and the source is 入門 (1575), before the name had moved. **So the hazard is in sourcing, not in the composition: what is sold as 靑木香 today is Aristolochia root, which carries aristolochic acid — nephrotoxic, and a Group 1 carcinogen with no preparation that removes it. Dispense 木香, Aucklandiae Radix, and refuse anything offered under the name 靑木香.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.