Oyster Shell
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Tranquilizers
Oyster Shell
Latin:
Concha Ostrea
Origin:
The shell of Ostrea gigas Thunb, Ostrea ta Crosse, or Ostrea rivularis Gould, of the family Ostreidae (true oyster) or Aviculidae (pearl oysters). Oyster is a bivalve shellfish having two shells of the mollusk group.
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True oysters have been cultivated as food since pre-Christian times. Pearl oysters also have long been valued for the precious pearls that develop in them.
The two valves of the oyster shell, which differ in shape, have rough surfaces that are often a dirty gray. The upper valve is convex, or higher at the middle than at the edges. The lower valve, fixed to the bottom or to another surface, is larger, has smoother edges, and is rather flat. The inner surfaces of both valves are smooth and white.
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The valves are held together at their narrow ends by an elastic ligament. A large central muscle serves to close the valve against the pull of the ligament. As the valves are held slightly open, tiny hairlike structures (cilia) draw water inward by means of wavelike motions. Two to three gallons may pass through the oyster in an hour. Minute organic particles, filtered from the water, serve as food.
Oysters, in turn, are eaten by birds, starfishes, and snails, as well as by fishes, including skates. The oyster drill (Urosalpinx cinenea), a widely occurring snail, drills a tiny hole through the oyster shell with its tongue, then sucks out the living tissue.
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Like other bivalves, most oysters are either male or female, although hermaphroditism also occurs. Ostrea edulis exhibits a phenomenon called rhythmical hermaphroditism, in which an individual alternates sexes seasonally or with changes in water temperature. Oysters breed in the summer. The eggs of some species are released into the water before fertilization by the sperm; the eggs of others are fertilized within the female. The young are released as ciliated spheres known collectively as spat, which swim for several days before attaching themselves permanently to a site. Edible oysters are ready for harvesting in three to five years.
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True oysters (family Ostreidae) include species of Ostrea, Crassostrea, and Pycno donte. Common Ostrea species include the European flat, or edible, oyster, O. edulis; the Olympia oyster, O. lurida; and O. frons. Crassostrea species include the Portuguese oyster, C. angulata; the North American, or Virginia, oyster, C. virginica; and the Japanese oyster, C. gigas.
Pearl oysters (family Aviculidae) are mostly of the genus Meleagrina, sometimes called Pinctada or Margaritifera.
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O. edulis occurs from the coast of Norway to waters near Morocco, through the Mediterranean Sea, and into the Black Sea. It is hermaphroditic and attains lengths of about 8 cm. O. lurida, of the Pacific coastal waters of North America, grows to about 7.5 cm. C. virginica, native to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the West Indies and about 15 cm long, has been introduced into Pacific coastal waters of North America. Up to 50,000,000 eggs may be released by the female at one time.
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Commercially, C. virginica is the most important North American mollusk. C. angulata occurs in coastal waters of western Europe. C. gigas, of Japanese coastal waters, is among the largest oysters, attaining lengths of about 30 cm. Like C. virginica, the Sydney rock oyster (Crassostrea commercialis) changes sex; born male, it changes to female later in life. It is the most economically important Australian edible oyster.
Oysters are shucked and eaten raw, cooked, canned, or smoked; small quantities are frozen. Popular varieties include the blue point and lynnhaven--forms of C. virginica (harvested, respectively, from the Blue Point, Long Island, and Lynnhaven Bay, Va., regions); as well as the colchester of Britain and the marennes of France. The colchester and marennes are forms of O. edulis.
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Pearls are formed in oysters by the accumulation of nacre, the material lining the oyster shell, around a solid piece of foreign matter that has become lodged inside the shell. Pearls formed in edible oysters are lustreless and of no value. The best natural pearls occur in a few Oriental species, particularly Mele agri na vulgaris, native to the Persian Gulf. This species is found mainly at depths of 8 to 20 fathoms (48 to 120 feet). Pearls are taken mostly from oysters more than five years old. Cultured pearls are grown around bits of mother-of-pearl inserted manually into the oyster. Most cultured pearls are grown in Japanese or Australian coastal waters.
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In China, oysters are produced in coastal areas from northeast to Hainan Island. For oyster shell, it is better collected in winter. When the flesh is taken off, the shell is washed clean, dried in sunlight and broken into pieces and used unprepared or calcined.
See also Food, Seafood, Oyster.
Properties:
Salty and astringent in flavor, slightly cold in nature, it is related to the liver and kidney channels.
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Functions:
Oyster shell has the effcts of suppressing the yang and tranquilizing--similar to dragon's bone. With the effects of benefiting yin and clearing away, its effect of suppressing yang is strengthed.
Oyster shell has the action of softening and dissolving hard masses. This drug is often used in symptoms of dizziness and insomnia due to excess of yang and deficiency of yin.
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Applications:
1. Treats irritability, insomnia, dreaminess, amnesia (loss of memory due usually to brain injury, shock, fatigue, etc.) due to excess of yang:
It often used with drugs of suppressing liver-yang and transquilizers, such dragon's bone, cinnabaris, white peony root, magnetitum, etc. If those symtoms are due to deficiency of qi and blood and poor nourishing of heart mind, it is often used with drugs of nourishing the heart and tranquilizers, such as Semen Ziziphi spinosae, Semen Biorae, Radix Ginseng, Poria, and so on.
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2. For vertigo, headache, irritability due to hyperactivity of liver-yang, can be used together with drugs of calming the liver and suppresing active yang as flos chrysanthemi, radix aehyranthis bidentatae, radix cyathulae, os oraeonis fossilia and so on.
3. For the treatment of spontaneous sweating, night sweating, metrorrhagia (urine bleeding) and metrostaxis, leukorrhagia, spermatorrhea, it can be used respectively with drugs of benefiting vital energy and strengthening superficies, nourishing yin and astringing sweat, relieving metrorrhagia and leukorrhagia, strengthen the kindey and astringing spermatorrhea to supporting the healthy energy.
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4. For treatment of scrofula (tuberculosis of lymph nodes especially in the neck) and subcutaneous nodules, it is often used with radix scrophulariae, bulbus friticlariae for softening and dissoving hard masses, dissipating scrofula, as in Scrofula-Eliminating Pill. It is also used for treatment of mass in the abdomen.
5. Besides, this drug has action of neutralizing acidity and analgesia. It can be used to relieve stomachache and acid reguritation.
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Dosage and Administration:
15-30 g.
Crushed before using and decocted for oral administration.
For astringing, it should be used calcined. For other purposes, it should be used unprepared.
Cautions on Use:
Reference Materials:
Toxic or Side Effects:
Modern Researches:
Oyster shell contains calcium carbonate. It has the actions of astringing, anti-acid and analgesic and helping ulcer healing., 百拇医药