巴戟天 Pageukcheon (파극천)

Original, read line by line 東醫寶鑑 · Tangaek — Decoctions vol. 2

1. 性微溫, 味辛甘, 無毒.

   Its nature is slightly warm, its taste pungent and sweet, and it is non-toxic.

   HomiclubPageukcheon is the root of a climbing plant from the warm south of China. It does not grow in Korea, so the Donguibogam marked it 【唐】, an imported material, and it is still brought in under the same name today.

2. 主男子夜夢鬼交泄精. 治陰痿不起, 益精, 利男子.

   It chiefly treats a man's emission of essence while dreaming at night of intercourse with a specter. It treats impotence, augments the jeong (精, essence), and benefits men.

3. 二月八月採根, 陰乾. 以連珠肉厚者, 爲勝, 今方家多以紫色爲良.

   Dig the roots in the second and eighth months and dry them in the shade. Those that run like a string of beads with thick flesh are held to be superior, and formularists today generally consider the purple ones good.

   HomiclubThe root's repeated constrictions, giving it the look of beads on a string, are the mark by which pageukcheon is recognized. When it is prepared, those pinched points are pressed to draw out the woody core inside.

4. 入藥, 鹽水煮, 打去心用之. 《本草》

   For use in medicine, boil it in salt water, beat it to remove the core, and then use it. 《Boncho (本草)》