• DOI:10.1144/SP375.8
• Corpus ID: 129854945

History of the pharmaceutical use of pumice

@inproceedings{Duffin2012HistoryOT,
  title={History of the pharmaceutical use of pumice},
  author={Christopher J. Duffin},
  year={2012}
}

• C. Duffin
• Published 17 December 2012
• Medicine

Abstract Pumice has been used as an abrasive with medical applications for over 2000 years. Introduced into traditional Chinese medicine in the mid-eighteenth century, it has been employed as part of a decoction (tea) in combination with a range of herbs and other geopharmaceuticals (including amber, cinnabar, mica and the bones of fossil vertebrates) in the treatment of gall bladder cancer, urinary conditions, dry and hacking coughs, and anxiety disorders. Pumice has had a relatively stable literary history in Western medicine. ‘Spuma maris’ (sea foam) has been a source of some confusion in classical literature, a situation exacerbated by some medieval revisionist texts. In a medical context, the term most commonly refers to pumice. Pumice has been employed since classical times in preparations acting as dentifrices, cleansers for ulcers (particularly of the skin and cornea), cicatrizing agents to help wounds scar efficiently, an active ingredient in eye ointments and powders in both farriery and human medicine, sneeze-inducing powders, and abrasives for removing body hair and assisting in the production of fine powders of resistant pharmaceutical ingredients.