Pearls, prepared
Perle preparate
- Known today as
- Pearls ground to a fine powder.
- Kind
- Animal, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- calcium carbonate, conchiolin, trace amino acids
- Earliest authority here
- Pliny (AD 23/24–79)
- In the Canale glossary
- On the Manner of Discerning and Healing the Bewitched, Appendix A: Part Three, Chapter 6: Remedies Given by Mouth After the Purge
Revised October 3, 2026: Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Pearls, prepared: what did Canale use it for?
In the powder for the bewitched (ch. 6).
Pearls, prepared: what does modern science say?
Chemically almost all calcium carbonate, mostly as aragonite.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- calcium carbonate ChEMBLmostly aragonite; over 95 per cent
- conchiolinthe protein matrix
- trace amino acids
- Mechanism
- Ground pearl is calcium carbonate with a little protein, and a calcium source; the Chinese pearl powder (zhenzhu fen), given for the skin and to calm, has animal data for both: mice are sedated by it, its conchiolin protein seeming the key constituent, and scalds in mice heal faster under a pearl preparation.
- Toxic dose
- Safe taken over long periods without obvious adverse reactions; the Chinese Pharmacopoeia sets limits for its heavy metals.
- Standing
- In the Chinese Pharmacopoeia; a cosmetic ingredient; in Europe still used as a skin whitener in the nineteenth century.
- Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission (2020). Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China, “Margarita.” Primary text
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Used in These Compounds
Pearls, prepared is an ingredient of 2 compound medicines in the database. For Club members. Create a free account or sign in.
Pearls, prepared: what did the older authorities say?
- Pliny
- Tells how Cleopatra won a wager with Antony by dissolving a great pearl in vinegar and drinking it.
Sources
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 9.58–59, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library. Read in part · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Pearl.” Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Pearl powder.” Read in full · the text read
- Song, Y., et al. (2022). The application of pearls in traditional medicine of China and their chemical constituents, pharmacology, toxicology, and clinical research. Frontiers in Pharmacology 13: 893229. Read in full · the text read
In Symbols of the Psyche
The Pearl: what it stood for in alchemy and in analytical psychology.
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 5 cited: 3 read in full, 1 read in part, 1 primary text.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“Pearls, prepared.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/pearls-prepared.
- MLA
“Pearls, prepared.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/pearls-prepared. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Pearls, prepared. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/pearls-prepared
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See Also
Sharing calcium carbonate
Also in Pliny the Elder
Pennyroyal in Pliny the Elder · Palm of Christ in Pliny the Elder · Pilewort in Pliny the Elder · Oxymel, and oxymel of squill in Pliny the Elder · everything Pliny the Elder names →
Drawing on the same sources: Wikipedia
Nearby in the alphabet
Penicillin mould (fruit, and damp) · Pawpaw (the one temperate tree of the custard-apple family) · Passarino’s white powder (a man skilled in the spagyric (chemical) art (note XXXIX)) · Peony (the kind formerly grown for its medicinal root) · Paschal candle · Periwinkle (the lesser periwinkle, a trailing evergreen with blue flowers) · Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)
Historical description, not medical advice.