Tao Hongjing of Liang Dynasty said in Compendium of Materia Medica that pearls "have the function of healing skin and stopping bleeding". Tang Dynasty's "Haiyao Herbal Medicine" holds that pearls can improve eyesight, eliminate dizziness and stop diarrhea. In the Yuan Dynasty, merchants often drank honey and pearl powder in water, thinking that it could nourish and prevent heatstroke. Yuan Haowen recorded in "Continued Jane Yizhi": "There is little ice in Taoshui in winter ... round and clean like pearls ... in summer, honey water is used and pearl powder is added."
In the Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen paid more attention to the pharmacological effects of pearls, and believed that the efficacy of pearls was to beautify the skin. Therefore, he wrote in Compendium of Materia Medica: "Pearls are salty, sweet, cold, non-toxic and calming; Pearlescent coating makes people moist and look good. Apply hands and feet, skin peeling; Eliminating phlegm, removing spots and stopping diarrhea; In addition to children's fever, soothe the soul; Stop nocturnal emission, remove acne and cure poison. ..... make the luster white ",etc. At the same time, many methods of pearl medicine are also recorded.
In the Ming Dynasty, Chen Jiru quoted Du Yizhi as saying that when Li Yan was in power in Tang Wuzong, Prime Minister Li Deyu made soup with jewel powder, realgar and cinnabar, each cup cost about 30,000 yuan, but after three times of decoction, the dregs were discarded. At that time, alchemy was popular, and it was believed that pearl powder, realgar and other things, after refining, could be taken permanently, and the crane hair was beautiful.
Both People's Republic of China (PRC) Pharmacopoeia and Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine point out that pearl has the functions of calming the nerves, improving eyesight, removing toxic substances and promoting granulation, while modern research also shows that pearl powder has a unique role in improving human immunity, delaying aging, removing spots and whitening, and supplementing calcium.