Sentry Page Protection
Oyster Shell, Mu Li 牡蛎
Testa Ostrearum, Concha Ostrearum
Mu Li (TCM)
Sadaf (Unani)
Mu Li (TCM)
Sadaf (Unani)
Zoological name:
Ostrea spp. including O. edulis
Parts used:
Shell
Temperature & Taste:
Cold (balanced in old TCM texts), dry. Salty
Ostrea spp. including O. edulis
Parts used:
Shell
Temperature & Taste:
Cold (balanced in old TCM texts), dry. Salty
Uses:
1. Clears Heat, Calms the Heart and Spirit, Stops Wind:
-Headache, Dizziness, Insomnia, Irritability, flushed face
-Palpitations with Anxiety (TCM)
-beneficial in Hypertension
-traditionally for Fright and Anger (TCM)
-"A Cordial, resisting poison, plague, and putrefaction ... Cheers the Spirits". (Salmon)
-"they are also a cordial, they cheer the Heart, and refresh the Spirits". (Medicinalis Hibernica, K'eogh, 1739)
2. Clears Phlegm-Heat, Disperses Nodes and Swellings
-Lumps and subcutaneous nodules, especially in the Neck;
-Scrofula, Goiter, and Lymphadenitis.
-swelling of the Spleen
-it has been claimed the powder to be effective in certain cases of Cancer.
-'Oyster shell or its plaster gives relief in gout and associated inflammation as also in all kinds of arthralgia'. (Avicenna)
-Raw Shell is used
3. Astringes to Stop Leakage:
-continuous and spontaneous Sweating, Night Sweats
-Leukorrhea, Spermatorrhea, nocturnal Emission
-Uterine Bleeding. (TCM, sometimes similarly in the West)
-old TCM texts said if taken with Rehmannia Shu Di it nourishes and astringes Essence.
4. Clears Stomach Heat:
-Antacid; Heartburn; Gastric pain with a sour taste in the mouth
-Gastric Ulcers
-the calcined form is perferred for this function in TCM
-"unroasted oyster shell is a sedative drug to be used in Gastralgia" (Avicenna)
-"being reduced to fine powder are proper to cure Cardialgia’s [Heartburn], the pain of the Stomach, the Colic, and all other pains of the bowels proceeding from the acidity of humours", (Medicinalis Hibernica, K'eogh, 1739)
5. Benefits Yin, Astringes Essence:
-"Strengthens the Balsam of Life’" (Salmon)
-old TCM texts it was said to promote Longevity
-strengthens the Bones and Marrow
6. Externally:
-used in Tooth powders
-ashes are applied to Moist and slow-healing Sores and Ulcers; (TCM, West)
-Lixivium made of them is helps ‘Edematosus tumours of the knees and feet’. (Salmon)
-"The ashes of the said shells are good to dry up Ulcers, and whiten the Teeth". (Medicinalis Hibernica, K'eogh, 1739)
-severe Frostbite, the calcined powder is sprinkled on. (Barefoot Doctors Manual)
-Scabies: 'Ash from all kinds of oyster shells is useful in Scabies'. (Avicenna)
-Pityriasis: "The application of external parts of the oyster shell and its chips in burnt form clears Pityriasis" (Avicenna)
-Burns: "Burnt oyster shell mixed with salt, is used as a dusting powder on burns which stays there for a while till the wounds become dry". (Avicenna)
-Wounds of the nerves: beat the shell with shellfish and apply. (Avicenna)
Dose:
Shells in Decoction: 10–30 grams; for Tumors, 90–120 grams
Prepared Shell in fine Powder: 500mg–3 grams (up to 6 grams)
Preparation:
1. Cleansed Oyster Shell:
The shells can be soaked in vinegar and water to cleanse them, then washed well, and dried in the sun or an oven.
2. Calcined Oyster Shell (Duan Mu Li):
To Calcine them, research has shown heating to 900º C for 1 hour is most effective against gastric ulcers. The calcined product is a better astringent and antacid. Commonly used externally.
Substitutes:
'Galen also experimented with sea shell and found it similar to oyster shell in properties'. (Avicenna) Other Sea shells have similar properties.
Shells in Decoction: 10–30 grams; for Tumors, 90–120 grams
Prepared Shell in fine Powder: 500mg–3 grams (up to 6 grams)
Preparation:
1. Cleansed Oyster Shell:
The shells can be soaked in vinegar and water to cleanse them, then washed well, and dried in the sun or an oven.
2. Calcined Oyster Shell (Duan Mu Li):
To Calcine them, research has shown heating to 900º C for 1 hour is most effective against gastric ulcers. The calcined product is a better astringent and antacid. Commonly used externally.
Substitutes:
'Galen also experimented with sea shell and found it similar to oyster shell in properties'. (Avicenna) Other Sea shells have similar properties.
Main Combinations:
1. Sweating due to Qi deficiency, with Astragalus and Atractylodes Bai Zhu.
2. Night Sweats due to Yin deficient-heat, with Rehmannia Sheng Di and Paeonia Bai Shao.
3. Lumps or Nodes of the Neck, Scrofula, Goiter:
i. with Self Heal
ii. with Tea (traditional Chinese texts)
iii. with Kelp and Sargassum
4. Internal Wind, with Asparagus root (Tian Men Dong), Peony root (Bai Shao), Hematite and Licorice (as in Zhen Gan Xi Feng Tang)
5. Kidney and Essence weakness with Seminal Emission, Premature Ejaculation, Neurasthenia, with Astragalus seed Sha Yuan Ji Li, Fox Nut (Qian Shi), Lotus seed (Lian Zi), Fossil bones (Long Gu) (as in Jin Suo Gu Jing Wan)
6. Bleeding from the Stomach, burnt Oyster shell, with Amber, Red Coral, Hematite, Burnt Deer horn, Rose, Sumac, Gum Arabic, Tabasheer (as in Powder for Bleeding from the Stomach of Nicholas)
7. Gastro-Intestinal Ulcers (acute not chronic): burnt Oyster shell (4 parts), Gall (2 parts), Pepper (1 part). (Avicenna)
8. Excess Menstruation, with Deer horn, Pomegranate flower, Amber, Red Coral, Tabasheer, Rose (as in Powder for Menstrual Flux of Isaac)
9. Moist Sores that are hard to heal, Oyster shell burnt (2 drams), Aloes (1 dram), Ashes of Sea Urchins (?), mix with Pig fat and apply. (The Secrets of Alexis, 1615)
10. Wounds, Oyster shell powder, Myrrh, Frankincense (Avicenna)
11. Eye diseases: 'Ash from all kinds of oyster shell, with its pulp, is mixed with kohl to dissolve thickening of eye lids, removes corneal opacity and cures day-blindness'. (Avicenna)
Major Formulas:
Powder for Menstrual Flux (Isaac)
Powder for Bleeding from the Stomach (Nicolas)
An Chong Tang
Mu Li San
Chai Hu Gui Zhi Gan Jiang Tang
Chai Hu Jia Long Gu Mu Li Tang
Gui Zhi Jia Long Gu Mu Li Tang
E Jiao Ji Zi Huang Tang
San Jia Fu Mai Tang
Tu Si Zi Wan
Jin Suo Gu Jing Wan
Xiao Luo Wan
Zhen Gan Xi Feng Tang
Cautions:
1. Not used in cold and weakness of the Stomach.
2. Not used in cases of High Fever without Sweating
3. According to TCM texts it is adverse to Ephedra and Praying Mantis Egg Cases (Sang Piao Xiao) and the flower of Elecampane.
Main Preparations used:
Powder, Calcined Powder
SALT AGAINST FEVERS (Sal Febrifugum).
Oyster Shells are washed well, then calcined to whiteness; then dissolve in water, filter and coagulate. Salmon said some just used the inner pearly portion which is no doubt better; the calcination must be very gentle, otherwise they will lose most of their Volatile Salt.
This is given for fevers, for it ‘absorbs the Acid Humours of which fevers are mostly generated. And therefore the Salt has immediately an intimate mixtion with the blood and other juices; whereby, being carried all over the whole Human frame, it certainly and presently performs that in a small Dose which a cart load of some other medicines would do nothing at all’.
Dose: ½-1 dram taken in an appropriate juice or infusion etc. (Bates)
1. Not used in cold and weakness of the Stomach.
2. Not used in cases of High Fever without Sweating
3. According to TCM texts it is adverse to Ephedra and Praying Mantis Egg Cases (Sang Piao Xiao) and the flower of Elecampane.
Main Preparations used:
Powder, Calcined Powder
SALT AGAINST FEVERS (Sal Febrifugum).
Oyster Shells are washed well, then calcined to whiteness; then dissolve in water, filter and coagulate. Salmon said some just used the inner pearly portion which is no doubt better; the calcination must be very gentle, otherwise they will lose most of their Volatile Salt.
This is given for fevers, for it ‘absorbs the Acid Humours of which fevers are mostly generated. And therefore the Salt has immediately an intimate mixtion with the blood and other juices; whereby, being carried all over the whole Human frame, it certainly and presently performs that in a small Dose which a cart load of some other medicines would do nothing at all’.
Dose: ½-1 dram taken in an appropriate juice or infusion etc. (Bates)
The Treatment of Cancer
|
'Dr. Peter Hood has succinctly related the case of an old lady in Hertfordshire who, after having suffered from positive cancer of the breast, caused it to entirely separate by a steady perseverance in the medicinal use of oyster-shell powder. At the same time she lived principally upon bread and milk, seldom eating meat. She was led to take these steps because of a similar cure which came within her knowledge on a gentle man who had a tumour in his cheek, of the size of a small orange, which was pronounced by Sir Astley Cooper to be a cancerous tumour, he advising its prompt removal, and saying that unless this were done the patient would not live six months. But under treatment by oyster-shell powder in less than six months the tumour had entirely disappeared, and perfect health was restored. The old lady, aged eighty, lived for two years after Dr. Hood had seen her. The wound, he adds, resulting from the Separation of the breast never entirely healed, but she did not complain at any time of discomfort from it. When
|
Dr. Hood inspected it this was comparatively dry, with only a slight sanious discolouration of the linen with which she kept it covered. Sir Spencer Wells broached the view, about which he had become convinced, that a starvation of fibroid tumours by lime slowly deposited in the blood vessels feeding them, may be often produced (resembling the spontaneous change which sometimes occurs in such tumours) by giving calcareous elements medicinally. He had read some years previously Dr. Mc Clintock's observations on the chloride of lime, and had in consequence been led to prescribe lime freely in the treatment of tumours. He added (as Dr. Hood relates) his opinion that if the lime were continued too long, all the arteries of the body, and not only those going to the tumour, would begin to degenerate, the first evidence being the formation of a white; calcareous ring around the pupil of the eye'. (Animal Simples approved for modern Uses of Cure, Fernie, 1899)
|