Shankha

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

What the texts say Shankha does

• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Pachana — digests ama (digestive)
• Shoolaprashamana — relieves colicky pain
• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool

What the evidence says. Calcium carbonate's antacid action is established. The specific classical preparation has not been shown superior to it.

Side effects and limits

Calcium carbonate. Prolonged high-dose use with milk can in principle produce milk-alkali syndrome, which is the specific thing to watch in a drug that is given for acidity and taken with milk.

Avoid or ask first: Hypercalcaemia.; Renal impairment with high-dose prolonged use.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

The classical drug of amlapitta and parinama shoola — calcium carbonate acting as an antacid, which is the one mineral dravya whose mechanism is entirely uncontroversial.

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.

Shankha 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.

Ordinary sea shell is substituted for Turbinella pyrum routinely. Turbinella pyrum is also protected under India's Wildlife Protection Act, which makes sourcing a legal question and not only a quality one.

From Turbinella pyrum, the Indian sacred conch. The shell.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Shankha is the Sanskrit that became the Greek konche and the Latin concha, and from there the English conch. The word travelled with the shell along the same routes the trade did.

Shankha bhasma is the classical antacid of Ayurveda, in amlapitta, parinama shoola and grahani.

Constituents. A product of Turbinella pyrum, the Indian sacred conch.

• 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.