Cuttlebone is salty in flavor and astringent and warm in properties. And it goes to two meridians of liver and kidney. Chief functions include astringency and hemostasis, arresting spontaneous emission and leukorrhagia, relieving aching pain, astringing dampness to heal sores. Basic cuttlefish bone uses and indications are spitting blood, metrorrhagia and metrostaxis, having blood in the stool, nosebleed, traumatic hemorrhage, spermatorrhea due to kidney deficiency, leukorrhea with reddish discharge, gastralgia, belching and acid regurgitation, eczema, and ulcers. Recommended dosage is from 10 to 30 grams in decoction, or 1.5 to 3 grams in powder. Cuttlefish bone benefits Today cuttlebones are widely used in the treatments of gastric and duodenal ulcer, bleeding and perforation caused by ulcer, asthma, leg ulcers, and bleeding after pulling out a tooth and nasal surgery. So, how to take advantage of the health benefits from cuttlebones? And its pharmacological actions can give some inspirations. Modern cuttlebone pharmacology 1. It resists peptic ulcer, tumor, and radiation and sets a broken bone; 2. Calcium carbonate contained can neutralize stomach acid, change the pH of the stomach contents, reduce pepsin activity, and promote the healing of ulcers; 3. After chitin contained reacts with organic matter in stomach and gastric juice, it could form a protective layer on the surface of the ulcer and then promote the blood coagulation; 4. Animal experiments showed that cuttlebone could obviously promote bone defect repair; 5. Its extract by edetic acid can inhibit S180 sarcoma and ascites sarcoma; 6. Its water extract by intragastric administration can significantly improve the survival rate of rats received 60Co radiation and serotonin levels in the blood.
