Witnessed by: TCM
Blister beetle (Mylabris phalerata), of the Meloidae (Insecta) family. A soft-bodied beetle with black wing-covers crossed by yellow bands, feeding on flowers; native range: on the flowers and foliage of soy, cotton and cucurbits across central and southern China. Globally recognized as ban mao (斑蝥), da ban mao (大斑蝥) in Chinese, and blister beetle, Chinese cantharides, mylabris in English. The part used is the whole dried insect. Elongate black beetles with three yellow-brown transverse bands across the wing-cases, light and brittle, with a sharp foul acrid odour; the powder blisters the skin it settles on and must never be handled bare.
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.
BLISTER BEETLE
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- blister beetle
- Scientific name
- Mylabris phalerata Pallas, 1781
- Family
- Meloidae (Insecta)
Form
- Part used
- the whole dried insect
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- pungent (辛)
Temperature
- TCM
- hot (熱)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Liver · Stomach · Kidney
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- breaks up blood stasis and attacks accumulated masses, resolves toxicity and dissipates nodules, and — applied outwardly — raises a blister and draws
Cautions
- Contraindications
- pregnancy absolutely; weakness and deficiency; any disease of the kidney or urinary tract; broken or extensive skin, where the external application is absorbed
- Toxicity
- severely toxic — cantharidin blisters on contact and, swallowed, burns the gut, damages the kidney and has killed at doses close to the therapeutic one. The narrowest margin in the animal materia medica; internal use is a specialist act
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