# Pearls, prepared

**Perle preparate**

**Known today as.** Pearls ground to a fine powder.

Kind: Animal

## What did Canale use it for?

In the powder for the bewitched (ch. 6).

## What does modern science say?

Chemically almost all calcium carbonate, mostly as aragonite.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **calcium carbonate**: mostly aragonite; over 95 per cent
- **conchiolin**: the 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.

**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.

## 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.
- Wikipedia, “Pearl.”
- Wikipedia, “Pearl powder.”
- 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.
- Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission (2020). *Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China*, “Margarita.”

---

*Pearls, prepared.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-03. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/pearls-prepared

Historical description, not medical advice.