Hong Fen红粉
Hydrargyri Oxydum Rubrum · Red Mercuric Oxide · Sublimed Mercury Preparation · Hong Sheng Dan
Overview
- · — the sub-section of surface remedies that draw out toxin, clear away dead tissue and let a wound close.*
The head of that sub-section, and the item the whole method was built around. Also called, Hong Sheng Dan and San Xian Dan, it is not a plant or a natural mineral but a laboratory product: mercury, saltpetre and alum heated together in a sealed vessel until a red sublimate condenses on the lid. That sublimate is mercuric oxide. Dusted in the smallest possible quantity onto an ulcer that will not clean itself, or carried into a sinus tract on a medicated wick, it destroys the dead tissue at the surface so that granulation can begin — which is exactly why it was prized before debridement and antibiotics existed. It is also a mercury compound absorbed straight through an open wound. This entry records a classical external preparation; it is not a recommendation, and in most countries outside China it cannot lawfully be supplied at all.
Nature & Flavor
Acrid · Hot · Strongly toxicChannels
Lung · SpleenTypical Dosage
**External use only — never taken internally in any amount.** A very small quantity of the finely ground powder, almost always diluted with calcined gypsum in the classical proportions (nine parts gypsum to one part Hong Fen for Jiu Yi Dan, and stronger blends up to Wu Wu Dan), dusted on the lesion or worked into a medicated wick. Small area, short course.Actions
4 core actions
- Draws out toxin, removes dead tissueUlcers and abscesses that have opened but will not clean — thick undrained pus, sloughy tissue clinging to the base, a wound edge that stays rolled and dark.
- Lets the wound closeOnce the dead tissue lifts, the strength is stepped down: the classical practice moves from Wu Wu Dan to Ba Er Dan to Jiu Yi Dan and then to a plain closing powder as granulation appears. The drug clears the obstacle; it does not itself build tissue.
- Carried into a tractRolled into a paper or gauze wick and laid into a sinus, fistula or undermined cavity so that the surface being treated is the one that cannot be reached from outside.
- Always diluted, never neatPure Hong Fen is too strong and too readily absorbed for a wound surface. The gypsum in the classical blends is what makes the dose controllable; the ratio, not the herb, is the prescription.
In Formulas
Formulas containing Hong Fen
No published formula lists this herb yet — the library is growing.
Indications & Clinical Uses
- Chronic ulcers and opened abscesses with sloughy, undrained tissue (classical external use)
- Sinus tracts and fistulae, treated with a medicated wick
- Unhealing wound edges before granulation begins
- Modern wound care achieves the same aim by debridement and dressings, without mercury
Western Medical Keywords
Searchable condition terms
Contraindications
Cautions
Hong Fen is mercuric oxide — a mercury compound, strongly toxic. Read this entry as a record of the classical materia medica, not as a treatment recommendation.
- External use only. It is never swallowed, in any preparation, at any dose. There is no internal dose to state because there is no acceptable internal use.
- An open wound is an absorbing surface. Mercury applied to ulcerated tissue enters the circulation far more readily than it would through intact skin. Poisoning from mercury-containing wound powders is documented: metallic taste, sore and bleeding gums, loosening teeth, excessive salivation, abdominal pain and diarrhoea, tremor and mood change, and above all kidney injury — protein in the urine, falling urine output, acute renal failure.
- Keep the area small and the course short. Do not use it on a large wound, on several sites at once, over a body cavity or on a burn, and do not repeat it once the dead tissue has lifted. Prolonged use is the common thread in the reported poisonings.
- Never heated, never used undiluted, never combined with other mercury-containing preparations, and never used alongside iodide- or bromide-containing products.
- Absolutely avoided in pregnancy and breastfeeding, in children, and in anyone with kidney or liver impairment. Anyone with a known mercury allergy will react to it.
- Legal status. Mercury in medicines is prohibited or tightly restricted across the EU, the UK, the US, Canada and Australia, and mercury-containing traditional preparations have been recalled in several of them. A practitioner outside China generally cannot legally obtain, compound or supply this — confirm your own regulator's position rather than assuming.
- What is used instead. The same clinical problem — a wound that will not clean itself — is handled today by surgical or enzymatic debridement, appropriate dressings and treatment of the underlying cause, with non-toxic closing powders where a herbal step is wanted.
- Handling. Grind and blend it only with proper ventilation and protection; do not inhale the dust; store it labelled and locked away.
Contraindicated in pregnancy: Contraindicated in pregnancy and while breastfeeding — mercury crosses the placenta and passes into breast milk, and absorption through an open wound is efficient. There is no safe amount in either setting.
For licensed practitioners’ reference only
References
- The 升丹 preparations belong to the Ming–Qing external-medicine (外科) literature; the classical source text of the specific formula varies by lineage and is not asserted here.
2. Bensky, Clavey & Stöger. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica, 3rd ed.
3. 《中华人民共和国药典》(external use only; the requirement to dilute before application).
4. Mercury in medicinal products is restricted or prohibited in most Western jurisdictions — confirm the current position with your own regulator.
Professional reference notice. Entries are scholarly references for licensed TCM practitioners and students — not medical advice, and not a recommendation to self-prescribe. Chinese herbal formulas should be used under the guidance of a qualified practitioner. Content is an original editorial compilation by Cura x Cura, cross-checked against the cited references.