Witnessed by: TCM · Unani
Common salt (table salt) (Halite), of the halide mineral family. White cubic crystals and crystalline grains, freely soluble, drawing damp from the air; native range: evaporated from sea water and brine springs, and mined from bedded rock-salt; the article of the kitchen and the shop everywhere. Globally recognized as 食鹽 shi yan, 燒鹽 shao yan in Chinese, lavana in Sanskrit, namak-e-toam, milh in Arabic/Urdu, and common salt, table salt in English. The part used is the refined salt; roasted (shao yan) where the tradition asks it. White, glassy, cleaving into little cubes, purely and cleanly salt on the tongue, dissolving at once in water.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
COMMON SALT
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- common salt (table salt)
- Scientific name
- Halite (sodium chloride, NaCl)
- Family
- halide mineral
Form
- Part used
- the refined salt; roasted (shao yan) where the tradition asks it
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- salty
- Unani
- salty
Temperature
- TCM
- cold
- Unani
- hot & dry (2nd degree)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Stomach · Kidney · Large Intestine · Small Intestine
- Unani
- stomach · intestines
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- cools the blood and resolves toxicity, softens hardness and moistens dryness to unblock the bowels; in strong solution induces vomiting; guides other drugs into the Kidney channel
- Unani
- hazim (digestive), jali (detergent), muhallil (resolvent), muqai (emetic in strong solution), dafe-taffun (preservative and antiseptic)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- oedema, dropsy and any retention of water; cough and thirst from dryness; bleeding conditions and skin disease in the Unani reckoning; high blood pressure
- Toxicity
- not a poison in ordinary use, but excess holds water, aggravates dropsy and hypertension, and irritates the stomach; strong solutions taken as an emetic have caused dangerous salt overload
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