Low immunity, aging treated with TCM clam shells

What are clam shells(Hai Ge Ke)? Medicinally there are two types of clam shells – Meretrix meretrix Linnaeus (Wen Ge) and Cyclina sinensis Gmelin (Qing Ge), the animal in the family Veneridae. What’s more, it is also commonly known as Hai Ge Qiao, concha cyclinae, concha meretricis, cyclinae sinensis, and concha meretricis seu cyclinae. It is produced in the coastal areas. It lives in beach sands. For medicinal purposes, it is sifted and washed in a pan or basket and used raw or calcined.

Meretrix meretrix Linnaeus is fan-shaped or quasi-circular. Dorsal border is slightly triangular and ventral margin is circular arc, 3 to 10cm long and 2 to 8cm wide. Prominent umbo is located on the back and slightly toward the front. External surface is smooth, brown, and with clear concentric growth lines and usually jagged or wavy brown pattern on the back. Inside it is white and comes with no serrated edges. It is hard, odorless, tasteless, and with laminated striation on cross section.

Cyclina sinensis Gmelin is quasi-circular. Prominent shell top is located near the central dorsal part. Outside is light yellow or brown and with concentric growth lines that slightly protrude the surface of the shell and form ribbed rings. Inside is white or pale red, and the edge often comes with purple and neat little tooth pattern. Both left and right shells of the hinge have 3 main teeth but without lateral teeth.

Main chemical constituents are calcium carbonate and chitin. Raw Cyclina sinensis contains 96.01% calcium carbonate and calcined product 99.94%; raw meretrix meretris contains 96.53% calcium carbonate and calcined product 98.99%. And it also contains a variety of elements of calcium, sodium, iron, strontium, Mg, barium, cobalt, chromium, copper, zinc, phosphorus, and so on.

Clam shell health benefits
Speaking of clam shell, all kids love it so much, especially when they are playing on the beach. They would collect pretty conch shell and clam shell to show them off to other fellows. However, then few people are aware that this is an herb that comes with high medicinal value. And now let its pharmacological actions do the talk for itself.

Modern clamshell pharmacology
1. Anti-aging effect. It can significantly reduce animals’ lipid peroxide while greatly improving the activity of superoxide dismutase;
2. Anti-inflammatory effect. The recipe of combining clamshell, kelp, seaweed, and oysters, can inhibit the proliferation of granulation tissue in rats and tremendously inhibit acetic acid-induced acute peritonitis in mice.