Qian Dan铅丹
Minium · Red Lead · Lead Tetroxide · Huang Dan
Overview
- ·.*
An orange-red powder, also called and, produced by roasting lead: chemically it is lead tetroxide. Acrid, slightly cold and toxic, it draws out toxin, dries a weeping sore and lets a wound close. Its historical importance is larger than its own indications, because it is the substance that made the black plaster possible — boiled into vegetable oil, lead tetroxide turns the oil into the dark, tacky mass that classical external medicine spread on cloth and applied to sores, swellings and painful joints for centuries. Lead is a cumulative poison with no threshold below which it is harmless to a child, and lead-containing plasters and powders have caused documented poisoning. Most Western jurisdictions prohibit lead in medicines. This entry records the classical drug rather than recommending it.
Nature & Flavor
Acrid · Slightly cold · ToxicChannels
Heart · LiverTypical Dosage
0.3–0.6 gActions
4 core actions
- Draws out toxin, lets the wound closeUlcerated sores and abscesses that will not heal, burns, and chronic unhealing wound edges — the powder dusted on or worked into a plaster.
- Kills parasites, stops itchScabies, ringworm, weeping eczema and itching skin lesions, in the classical external record; also used for rosacea-type facial eruption and for body odour.
- The base of the black plasterLead tetroxide boiled with sesame or other vegetable oil forms the lead soaps that set into the black plaster mass. This — not any indication of its own — is why the mineral is in every classical external-medicine dispensary. It is also why plasters were sometimes worn for weeks, which is precisely the exposure pattern that causes lead poisoning.
- Settles phlegm, calms frightThe classical internal use for convulsion, fright and phlegm-obstruction patterns, and for the malarial fever cycle. Recorded as history; it is obsolete and not to be attempted.
In Formulas
Formulas containing Qian Dan
No published formula lists this herb yet — the library is growing.
Indications & Clinical Uses
- Chronic ulcers, unhealing sores and burns (classical external use)
- Scabies, ringworm, weeping eczema and itch (classical external use)
- As the base of classical black plasters for sores, swellings and painful joints
- Convulsion, fright, phlegm patterns and intermittent fever (classical internal use, obsolete)
Western Medical Keywords
Searchable condition terms
Contraindications
Cautions
Qian Dan is lead tetroxide — a lead compound, toxic and cumulative. Read this entry as a record of the classical materia medica, not as a treatment recommendation.
- Do not take it internally. The 0.3–0.6 g classical dose is recorded above for completeness only.
- Lead poisoning is slow and easy to miss. Repeated exposure produces cramping abdominal pain with constipation, anaemia, fatigue, headache, irritability and poor concentration, a blue-grey line at the gum margin, weakness of the wrist and finger extensors from motor nerve damage, and kidney injury. In children the damage to the developing brain is permanent, and there is no blood lead level regarded as safe.
- Absorbed through broken skin and by ingestion. Poisoning has followed lead plasters and powders applied to large ulcerated areas or worn for long periods, and from hand-to-mouth transfer of the powder. Use only on a small area, for a short defined course, and never on a large wound, a burn covering a wide surface, a body cavity, or mucous membranes.
- Absolutely avoided in pregnancy and while breastfeeding, in children and infants, and in anyone with kidney impairment or anaemia.
- Never heated in an enclosed space. Preparing a plaster produces fumes; the classical process is done outdoors or with strong ventilation, and the dust must not be inhaled.
- Legal status. Lead in medicinal products is prohibited or tightly restricted in the EU, the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. Imported traditional remedies containing lead have been recalled after causing poisoning. A practitioner outside China generally cannot legally supply this — confirm the position with your own regulator.
- What is used instead. Modern plaster bases and dressings do the mechanical job without lead, and a wound that will not close needs its cause investigated rather than a stronger topical.
Contraindicated in pregnancy: Contraindicated in pregnancy and while breastfeeding — lead crosses the placenta, is released from the mother's bone stores during pregnancy, passes into breast milk, and damages the developing nervous system. There is no safe amount.
For licensed practitioners’ reference only
References
- Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing《神农本草经》(classical source, public domain).
2. Bensky, Clavey & Stöger. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica, 3rd ed.
3. 《中华人民共和国药典》(external use; the caution against large-area and prolonged application).
4. Public health authorities do not recognise a safe blood lead concentration in children; see national lead exposure guidance.
5. Lead in medicinal products is prohibited or restricted 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.