Witnessed by: Western
Epsom salt (Epsomite), of the sulfate mineral family. Colourless, glassy needle-like or prismatic crystals, efflorescent in dry air; native range: efflorescent crusts in mine workings and limestone caves, in the beds of bitter salt lakes, and in the bitter waters of magnesian springs — first from the wells at Epsom in Surrey. Globally recognized as Epsom salt, bitter salt, sulphate of magnesia, epsomite in English. The part used is the crystallised salt. Colourless and glassy, odourless, cool and intensely bitter-saline on the tongue, dissolving freely 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.
EPSOM SALT
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- Epsom salt
- Scientific name
- Epsomite (magnesium sulphate heptahydrate, MgSO₄·7H₂O)
- Family
- sulfate mineral
Form
- Part used
- the crystallised salt
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Western
- bitter · salty
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Western
- bowels · intestines · kidneys
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Western
- a saline cathartic — holding water in the bowel by its own attraction and so flushing it out fully and promptly; cholagogue in the smaller repeated dose; externally, in hot solution, resolvent and anti-inflammatory to swellings
Cautions
- Contraindications
- impaired kidney function, intestinal obstruction or undiagnosed abdominal pain, dehydration; habitual use
- Toxicity
- the free purging drains water and salts; where the kidneys fail, absorbed magnesium depresses the nerves, breathing and heart
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