What are the effects and functions of Spongilla?
Spongilla, also known as Zixiaohua, Huazi and so on, is the dried colony of the freshwater sponge Spongilla fragilis (family Spongillidae). As a medicinal substance it has the effects of tonifying the kidney and assisting yang, securing essence and reducing urination, and it is used to treat conditions such as impotence, spermatorrhea, white turbid urine, deficiency-cold leukorrhea, urinary incontinence, and scrotal dampness and itching. Let us take a look together at the effects and functions of Spongilla below!
Medicinal effects of Spongilla
[Nature and flavor] Sweet in flavor, warm in nature.
[Meridian tropism] Kidney meridian.
[Effects] Tonifies the kidney and assists yang, secures essence and reduces urination. It mainly treats impotence, spermatorrhea, white turbid urine, deficiency-cold leukorrhea, urinary incontinence, and scrotal dampness and itching. It is contraindicated for those with yin deficiency and internal heat.
Related discussions on Spongilla
1. "Introduction to Medicine": Mainly treats decline of yang and impotence.
2. "Compendium of Materia Medica": Benefits yang and secures essence, treats exhaustion and debility of the true origin, impotence, spermatorrhea, residual dribbling, white turbid urine like fat, uncontrollable urination, dampness and itching under the scrotum, and cold leukorrhea in women. Used in pills, powders, and as a sitting bath.
Medicinal selected formulas of Spongilla
1. To treat weakness and flaccidity in sexual function: Spongilla and raw fossil bone (dragon bone) two qian each, and a little musk. Grind into powder, make honey pills the size of firmiana seeds. Take twenty pills each time, swallowed with spirits. To counteract the effects, drink ginger and licorice decoction.
2. To treat long-standing cold of the uterus with red and white leukorrhea: calcined oyster shell, calcined yellow dog skull, Spongilla, camphor, clove, cnidium fruit, psoralea fruit, and cinnamon heart in equal parts. Grind the above into a fine powder, refine with honey into pills the size of a chicken head. Use one pill at the time of need.
3. To treat genital itching with sores: Spongilla one liang, pepper half a liang. Grind into a coarse powder, decoct in water, and wash the area three to five times.