Witnessed by: TCM · Ayurveda
Musk (Moschus moschiferus), of the Moschidae (Mammalia) family. A small, hornless, tusked deer of high forest and scrub; the male bears the musk pod; native range: the musk deer of the forests and scrub of the Himalaya, Tibet, western China, Mongolia and Siberia. Globally recognized as she xiang (麝香) in Chinese, kasturi, mrgamada in Sanskrit, kasturi in Hindi, and musk, deer musk in English. The part used is the dried granular secretion of the preputial musk pod. Dark reddish-brown to blackish grains, slightly oily and soft, with an odour of overwhelming penetrating sweetness that carries and clings from the smallest trace, bitterish on the tongue.
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.
MUSK
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- musk
- Scientific name
- Moschus moschiferus Linnaeus, 1758
- Family
- Moschidae (Mammalia)
Form
- Part used
- the dried granular secretion of the preputial musk pod
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- pungent (辛)
- Ayurveda
- bitter (tikta) · pungent (katu)
Temperature
- TCM
- warm (温)
- Ayurveda
- heating (ushna)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Heart · Spleen
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- opens the orifices and revives the spirit, invigorates the blood and dispels stasis, reduces swelling and relieves pain, and hastens delivery
- Ayurveda
- hridya (cardiac tonic), medhya (nervine), vajikarana (aphrodisiac), a penetrating warming stimulant in the minute dose
Cautions
- Contraindications
- pregnancy — the drug moves blood strongly and hastens delivery
- Toxicity
- low toxicity at the minute doses used; the drug's force, not its poison, is the caution
- Sourcing status
- cites-i
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