What is a “Babu cream”?

Question

I am working in a Chinese pharmacy & have a product with the English name "Compound Methylsalicylate cataplasma". This is supposed to be a translation from the Chinese "复方水扬酸甲酯巴布膏".

As far as I know, "cataplasma" is not a word in the English language.

Google translate says "巴布膏" means "Babu cream", but that tells me next to nothing, while nciku.com has no results.

Answer 1

I am not an expert in this area but online search gave me:

• Cataplasma is a Spanish word. It could be a typo here. The English version is Cataplasm, Wikipedia says:

  A poultice, also called cataplasm, is a soft moist mass, often heated and medicated, that is spread on cloth over the skin to treat an aching, inflamed, or painful part of the body. It can be used on wounds such as cuts.

• 巴布膏, according to Baidu Zhidao, means:

  巴布剂是一种外用贴膏剂，在日本有较久的应用历史，系药材提取物或化学药物与适宜的亲水性基质混合后，被涂布在背衬材料上制成的贴膏剂。

From what I read, the narrow meaning of cataplasm and 巴布膏 may not be exactly the same, but in your context they both mean medicated cloth patch applied on skin. I think the translation you've mentioned is accurate.