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Pumex, Pumice, Fu Shi 浮石

Spuma maris ("Sea Foam")
Fu Shi (TCM)
Pumex and Tofus
Conradi Gesneri de Rerum Fossilium Lapidum et Gemmarum, 1565

Metallotheca Vaticana, Mercati, 1719

2 types of Pumice
(Adam, 2022)
Mineralogical Name:
Pumex; Volcanic scoria

Temperature & Taste:
Cold, dry. Salty

Classifications:
2F. PURIFYING
3K. EXPECTORANT
TCM:
P. Clears Hot Phlegm

Uses:
1. Clears Heat and Phlegm from the Lungs (TCM):
-cough with thick yellow phlegm that is hard to expectorate; heat-type cough, Bronchitis
-Spitting of blood, or blood-streaked sputum. (Raw Pumice is used in TCM for this function)    

2. Clears Damp-Heat, Promotes Urine (TCM):
-Hot painful urination, Dysuria
-Gravel, and blood in the urine.
-In Europe it was used for chronic Leakages including Diarrhea.
-Bone and joint pain and swelling from dampness and blood stasis. (Calcined Pumice is used)

3. Softens and Clears Lumps and Nodes (TCM):
-Scrofula, Goiter, Lymphatic Nodules, Hard Masses, Nodes, Tumors from Heat and phlegm. (Calcined Pumice is most used in TCM)    
-Swelling of the Penis (West)

4. Alleviates Thirst (TCM):
-Thirst associated with Lung or Stomach Heat

5. Externally:
-externally to cleanse and fill up Ulcers (Dioscorides)
-long used in Tooth Powders (Dioscorides)
-infusion used as a wash has been used to regenerate the skin, as well as promoting smooth skin.
-pieces of raw Pumice have long been used by women to remove hair from their body by rubbing the course stone across the hair.
-finely levigated powder has been used as a Collyrium.
-the levigated powder was applied topically to Ulcers in the cornea of the eye with apparently very good results.


Dose:
Decoction: 6–15 grams (boiled for 30-45 minutes before adding herbs);
Powder: 500mg–2 grams

Preparation:
1. Calcined:
i. Dioscorides said to ‘hide it in burning Coals, and when it is red hot, taking it out, quench it with odoriferous wine, and burning it again, quench it’. This is similar to the method of calcination used in TCM.
ii. In Europe it was heated 3 times, and each time it is quenched in White Wine, then washed in water. (Salmon)
iii. Mynsicht had the following procedure of preparation: red hot Pumice is quenched in Cow Milk three times. The fourth time, it is left in the Milk until cold, then washed, dried and powdered.

Substitute:
1. Costaziae skeleton, Fu Hai Shi, is used synonymously and is given in similar doses.
2. Calcium carbonate concretions that develop around mussel shells, Xiao Hai Shi is also used as a substitute.

Main Combinations:
1. Scrofula and Goiter:
i. Pumice with Kelp.
ii. Pumice with Self Heal, Figwort (Xuan Shen)
iii. Pumice with burnt Sponge and Cuttle bone (as in Powder of Burnt Sponge)
iv. Pumice with Burnt Sponge, Cuttle bone, Long Pepper, Black Pepper, Ginger, Cinnamon, Rock Salt, Pyrethrum (as in Powder for Scrofula)
2. Chronic Cough:
i. Powdered Pumice made into pills with Honey (Ben Cao Gang Mu)
ii. Powdered Pumice, Platycodon Jie Geng, Licorice
3. Painful urination, Strangury with Blood, decoct with Licorice (Hai Jin San from Ren Zhai Zhi Zhi Fang)
4. Diabetes, Pumice with Indigo and Musk (Ben Cao Gang Mu)
5. Penis pain associated with Hernia, Pumice, Akebia, Poria Fu Ling, Ophiopogon Mai Men Dong (Ben Cao Gang Mu)
6. Swelling and pain of the Penis, take the fat from the Kidney of a Sheep and add Pumice stone burned and a little Salt (The Secrets of Alexis, 1615)
7. Toxic Sores, Boils, Carbuncles, Pumice with Myrrh and Vinegar, applied topically.
8. Ear infection with discharge, Pumice with Myrrh topically (Ben Cao Gang Mu)
9. Chancre, apply Pumice and Honeysuckle (Ben Cao Gang Mu)
10. Tooth powder, Pumice with Pyrethrum, Mace, Mastic, Red Coral, Red Earth (West)

Major Formulas:
Powder of Burnt Sponge (Wirtzung)
Powder for Scrofula (Palestra Pharmaceutica)
Powder for Scrofula (Wirtzung)
Powder for Scrofula (Bononiense)
Ke Xue Fang

Cautions:
Not used in Cold-type Cough

Main Preparations used:
Prepared or Calcined Pumice
  • Extra Info
  • History
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Dioscorides:
'Pumice stone should be chosen which is very light, very hollow, easily cut, without stones, and furthermore both brittle and white. It is burnt as follows. Take as much of it as you wish, hide it in burning coals, and when it is red-hot, take it out, quench it with fragrant wine, then burn it and quench it again. The third time you take it off, leave it alone to cool, and put it in jars to use. It is able to tighten and cleanse the gums, purge away things that darken the eyesight with warming, fill up ulcers and form new skins on them, and furthermore, pounded to powder, it is able to repress abnormal growths and clean the teeth. It forms scabs over any sores on the body, and is a suitable medicine to remove hair. Theophrastus says that if one puts pumice stone into a jar of boiling wine that the boiling immediately stops'.
Salmon, Seplasium:
It is called in Arabic Taneck; in Greek Kisseris; in Latin, Pumex, Lapis Bibulis; in English, Pumice-stone. Found plentifully in Germany and some places in England. Thought to be generated of a torrefied Earth. The best is white and light, most spongy, and easily powdered.

It is a common spongy stone, cool, dries and extenuates, gently cleansing Ulcers, filling them with flesh and Cicatrizing them. It is especially effective for Ulcers of the genitals The fine powder is used as a Collyrium for the Eyes and a Tooth powder to cleanse the Teeth. As a sternutatory it promotes Sneezing. Aldrovandus says it is good for Ringworms. By rubbing the hair with the powder, it removes it. Theophrastus says taken internally it prevents drunkenness. If calcined, it should be washed as Cadmia.