What Is Oyster? Understanding Oyster's Benefits and Effects in One Article
What is oyster? Many of us know about oysters, and many people also enjoy eating oysters. But as for what an oyster actually is, we are not quite clear, or perhaps think it is just a food? Obviously not. Oysters are not only delicious in flesh, but also have many benefits and effects. Let us introduce them to you below.
Oyster, a traditional Chinese medicinal material name. Also known as lige, guben, zuogu mudou, muge, lifang, haopu, haoke, hailiizi shell, hailiizi skin, left shell. This product is the shell of the oyster family animals Jinjiang oyster, Pacific oyster or Dalian Bay oyster, etc. It can be collected year-round. After obtaining, remove the meat, take the shell, wash clean, and sun-dry.
What is oyster
Ancient Chinese medicine believed that oyster “is delicious and beneficial to people, and is a premium product from the sea.” Moreover, according to modern medical research, it has been found that the whole oyster is a treasure, especially the pearls it nurtures, which are even more exceptionally precious.
Oyster is a food
Oysters living on the edge of sandy beaches are very diverse in variety. Whenever the seawater surges in, oysters emerge and are collected by people. People pry open the oyster shell, take out the tender meat inside to eat, and thereby taste delicious and fresh flesh. Oysters are rich in protein, amino acids, and zinc; these components are particularly beneficial to the human body, especially since their cholesterol content is very low, making them an excellent food choice for children, the elderly, men, and beauty-loving women.
Oyster is a “medicine”
Modern medicine believes that oysters contain various nutrients, and eating them is extremely beneficial to the body. For example, they can improve gastrointestinal digestion and have effects such as supplementing calcium, detoxifying and nourishing the liver, beautifying and caring for the skin, nourishing yin and strengthening yang, and increasing libido. Therefore, their medicinal value is extremely high.
Oyster is a “natural pearl-cultivating factory”
Oysters can also grow pearls. Because an oyster is invaded by foreign matter from the outside, its outer membrane secretes various substances to protect itself. Under the stimulation of the foreign matter, the secretions wrap around the foreign matter layer by layer, and as time passes, a pearl gradually forms.
Oyster's functions and effects
1. Restlessness of the mind, palpitations, and insomnia. This product is heavy in quality and can calm, and has the effect of soothing the nerves. It is used to treat restlessness of the mind, palpitations and anxiety, insomnia and frequent dreaming, and other symptoms, often used together with dragon bone, as in Guizhi Gancao Longgu Muli Tang (Treatise on Cold Damage). It can also be combined with cinnabar, amber, spine date seed, and other nerve-calming products.
2. Liver yang rising, dizziness and vertigo. This product is salty and cold and heavy in quality, enters the liver meridian, and has the effects of calming the liver and subduing yang, and benefiting yin. To treat water failing to nourish wood, yin deficiency and yang hyperactivity, head and eye dizziness, restlessness, and tinnitus, it is often used together with dragon bone, tortoise shell, white peony, etc., as in Zhengan Xifeng Tang (Records of Chinese Medicine with Reference to Western Medicine); it also treats the symptoms of long-standing febrile disease, scorching true yin, internal stirring of deficiency wind, and twitching of the limbs, often combined with raw rehmannia, tortoise shell, turtle shell, and other yin-nourishing, wind-extinguishing and spasm-relieving medicines, as in Da Dingfeng Zhu (Systematic Differentiation of Warm Diseases).
3. Phlegm nodes, scrofula, goiter, and abdominal masses. This product is salty in taste and softens hardness and dissipates nodules. To treat phlegm nodes, scrofula, goiter, etc. caused by binding of phlegm and fire, it is often combined with Zhejiang fritillary and figwort, as in Xiaoluo Wan (Medical Insights); to treat abdominal masses due to qi stagnation and blood stasis, it is often used together with turtle shell, red sage, zedoary, etc.
4. Various slippage and discharge syndromes. After calcination, this product has an astringent and securing effect similar to calcined dragon bone, and through different combinations it can treat spontaneous sweating, night sweats, spermatorrhea, seminal emission, frequent urination, enuresis, abnormal uterine bleeding, vaginal discharge, and other slippage and discharge syndromes. To treat spontaneous sweating and night sweats, it is often used together with ephedra root, light wheat, etc., as in Muli San (Taiping Huimin Heji Jufang); oyster powder can also be applied to the sweating area and has an anti-sweating effect; to treat spermatorrhea and seminal emission due to kidney deficiency, it is often combined with astragalus complanatus, dragon bone, euryale, etc., as in Jinsuo Gujing Wan (Collected Explanations of Medical Formulas); to treat frequent urination and enuresis, it can be used together with mantis egg-case, Cherokee rose fruit, bitter cardamom, dragon bone, etc.; to treat abnormal uterine bleeding and vaginal discharge syndromes, it is also often combined with cuttlefish bone, Asiatic cornelian cherry, Chinese yam, dragon bone, etc.
In addition, calcined oyster has an antacid and analgesic effect, and can treat stomach pain with acid regurgitation; when ground into a fine powder together with cuttlefish bone and Zhejiang fritillary and taken orally, it is effective.