What are the benefits and uses of calamine? A comprehensive analysis

Calamine is a carbonate mineral of the calcite group, smithsonite, found in Hunan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan and other places. As a medicine it has the effects of detoxifying, improving eyesight and removing eye film, and of drying dampness, stopping itching and healing sores. It treats red swollen painful eyes, red eroded eyelid margins, eye film covering the pupil, pterygium encroaching on the cornea, non-healing ulcers, oozing pus, and weeping itchy eczema. Let us now take a look at the benefits and uses of calamine.

The medicinal value of calamine

[Nature and flavor] Sweet in flavor, neutral in nature.

[Meridians entered] Liver and spleen meridians.

[Effects] Detoxifies, improves eyesight and removes eye film; dries dampness, stops itching and heals sores. It mainly treats red swollen painful eyes, red eroded eyelid margins, eye film covering the pupil, pterygium encroaching on the cornea, non-healing ulcers, oozing pus, and weeping itchy eczema.

The medicinal effects of calamine

1. "Pin Hui Jing Yao": It mainly treats wind-heat red eyes, whether itchy or painful, with gradually forming eye film, and also treats damp sores of the lower body, applied as a paste.

2. "Gang Mu": Stops bleeding, reduces swelling and toxin, promotes tissue regeneration, improves eyesight, removes eye film and reduces redness, dries dampness and eliminates erosion. Applied together with borneol, it treats all kinds of eye diseases.

3. "Ben Jing Feng Yuan": Applied to wet eroded eyelids and damp swelling of the scrotum.

4. "Modern Practical Chinese Medicine": Used for chronic ulcers and leg ulcers that are difficult to close; it has the effect of preserving tissue and promoting tissue regeneration.

Medicinal formulas of calamine

1. To treat sudden red swelling of the eyes: Calamine (calcined by fire, quenched in urine) and weathered sodium sulfate, in equal parts. Grind into powder. Dissolve a millet-grain amount in fresh water and apply.

2. To treat various eye films: Calamine, green vitriol and crude sodium sulfate, in equal parts. Grind into powder. Each time use one zi, dissolve in boiling water, wash with the warm liquid, three times a day.

3. To treat wind eyes with tearing and eroded eyelid margins: Calamine 2 liang; decoct 1 liang of Coptis chinensis in water, add half a cup of boy's urine, simmer again, add 1 liang of crude sodium sulfate, simmer again until done; then calcine the mineral in fire and quench it seven times, wash clean, grind into powder, add 1 liang of lithargyrum powder, grind evenly, and keep it for application.

4. To treat various kinds of blepharitis: Mahonia root and stem 50 g, add 500 ml of water, decoct into a thick juice, remove the residue, then add calamine powder to form a thick paste, and dry it into a powder preparation. Then take 30 g of this powder, add 60 g of vaseline and 10 g of lanolin, and mix evenly into an eye ointment. Apply to the eyelid margins, twice daily.

5. To treat dimness and blurred vision: Calamine (calcined by fire, quenched in boy's urine seven times), hematite (calcined by fire, quenched in vinegar seven times) and lead oxide (purified by water grinding), 4 liang each. Grind into powder. Take half a jin of white sand honey, refine it in a copper pan to remove the white foam, add 5 to 6 bowls of clear water, bring to a boil, add the medicine, simmer with strong and gentle fire down to one bowl, until a drop does not disperse, filter through layered paper into a porcelain vessel and store. Apply frequently to the eyes.

6. To treat genital sores of the lower body: Calamine (calcined by fire, quenched in vinegar five times) 1 liang, catechu 3 qian. Grind into powder, mix with sesame oil and apply.

7. To treat non-healing fistula sores: Boy's urine-prepared calamine and oyster shell powder. Insert externally. Take nourishing medicine internally.

8. To treat purulent and yellow discharge from the ear: Calamine (ground) 2 qian, dried alum 2 qian, rouge half a qian, a little musk. Grind the above into a fine powder. Use a cotton wad to wipe away all the pus in the ear, then use another cotton wad dipped in the medicine, or simply blow a little dry into the ear. If accumulated heat rises and the ear discharges pus, take 100 pills of Shenxiong Wan to purge three to five times.

9. To treat gaps between teeth where things get stuck: Calamine (calcined) and gypsum rubrum, in equal parts. Grind into powder. Each time use a little to rub the teeth; avoid using a toothbrush; over time they will tighten on their own.