Mukta

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Moti

What the texts say Mukta does

• Daha prashamana — relieves burning
• Hridya — good for the heart
• Chakshushya — good for the eyes
• Rasayana — rejuvenative
• Balya — strengthening

What the evidence says. No clinical evidence establishes an effect beyond its calcium content.

Side effects and limits

Calcium carbonate, chiefly. Among the least toxic of the mineral and animal dravya. The consideration is calcium load rather than toxicity.

Avoid or ask first: Hypercalcaemia.

A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Mukta pishti, levigated in rose water rather than calcined, is a distinct preparation and is the one used most in pitta conditions.

Reported from Sharangadhara Samhita and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India. Laisha states what the texts prescribe; it does not recommend. No quantity here is adjusted for a particular person — not for agni, koshtha, bala, age, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything already being taken.

Mukta is classed among the jangama dravya.

Rasa, guna, virya, vipaka and karma are recorded as the classical texts give them, with the text and section named so a student can open the book and check.

Cultured and imitation pearls are what the market largely supplies. Calcium carbonate from any shell is not mukta.

From Pearl oyster, Pinctada species. The pearl.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Mukta means released or set free — the pearl is what is released from the shell. Margarita, the Greek and Latin for pearl, came in the other direction from an eastern word and gives us the name Margaret.

Mukta is among the ratna and is used in pitta conditions, in daha and in raktapitta, and in a number of well-known yogas.

Constituents. A product of Pearl oyster, Pinctada species.

• This is a study and clinical reference for practitioners and students. The matra and anupana it records are what the classical texts and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India PRESCRIBE — Laisha reports them, it does not recommend them. They are not a prescription for any particular person, and they are not adjusted for your age, agni, koshtha, bala, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything else you are already taking. Only a qualified practitioner who has examined you can do that.
• Traditional classification is recorded as what the classical texts say, with the text and the place in it named. It is not restated as a finding about a human body.
• Nothing here replaces a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or a doctor.