胡桐淚 Hodongnamu Jin (호동나무 진)

Original, read line by line 東醫寶鑑 · Tangaek — Decoctions vol. 3

1. 性大寒, 味醎苦, 無毒. 主大毒熱, 心腹煩滿. 止風熱牙疼, 療牛馬急黃.

   Its nature is greatly cold and its taste salty and bitter, and it is non-toxic. It chiefly treats fever from severe toxin and vexing fullness of the chest and abdomen. It stops toothache from wind-heat and treats geuphwang (急黃, acute jaundice) in oxen and horses.

   HomiclubHodongnu is the hardened resin of the hodong tree of the western regions. Hodong is a tall willow-family tree of desert margins, known today as the poplar of the Euphrates, which forms groves along watercourses in Central Asia and northwestern China.

2. 形似黃礬而堅實, 有挾爛木者, 是西域胡桐樹脂也. 味苦醎, 苦入水便消.

   Its form resembles hwangban (黃礬, yellow vitriol) but is hard and solid, and some pieces have rotted wood embedded in them; this is the resin of the hodong tree of the western regions. Its taste is bitter and salty, and the bitter kind dissolves as soon as it is put in water.

3. 治口齒爲最要之藥. 又爲金銀銲藥, 能軟一切物. 《本草》

   It is the most essential medicine for the mouth and teeth. It also serves as a soldering agent for gold and silver and can soften all manner of things. 《Boncho (本草)》

4. 投少許於醋中便沸者, 是眞也. 《本草》

   A piece broken off and dropped into vinegar that at once bubbles up is the genuine article. 《Boncho (本草)》

   HomiclubThe bubbling in vinegar is explained by carbonate mixed into the lump, which releases carbon dioxide on meeting an acid. The old test for authenticity was, in effect, a chemical reaction.

5. 瘰癧結核, 非此不能除. 《湯液》

   Narveok (瘰癧, scrofulous nodules) and gyeolhaek (結核, knotted lumps) cannot be removed except by this. 《Tangaek (湯液)》