Witnessed by: TCM · Western

Talc, of the silicate mineral family. A very soft, white to pale-green mineral in foliated, fibrous or compact masses, cleaving into flexible flakes; native range: metamorphic talc bodies in altered magnesian and dolomitic rock. Globally recognized as 滑石 hua shi in Chinese, talc, talcum, French chalk in English, and Talcum in Latin. The part used is the levigated (water-ground) powder. White and pearly, unctuous and slippery to the finger, the softest of minerals; odourless, tasteless, and floating away as an impalpable dust.

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.

TALC

IDENTITY

Name

Common: talc
Scientific name: Talc (hydrous magnesium silicate, Mg₃Si₄O₁₀(OH)₂)
Family: silicate mineral

Form

Part used: the levigated (water-ground) powder

PROPERTIES

Nature

Taste

how the plant declares itself on the tongue

TCM: sweet · bland

Temperature

TCM: cold

Affinity

where in the body it travels

Organs / channels

TCM: Bladder · Lung · Stomach
Western: skin

PRACTICE

Virtue

Actions

TCM: promotes urination and unblocks painful dribbling urination, clears heat and drains damp, resolves summerheat, and — applied outwardly — absorbs damp and dries weeping sores
Western: absorbent, protective and demulcent to the skin; a dusting powder, and a pharmaceutical filler, glidant and filtering medium

Cautions

Contraindications: TCM withholds it in Spleen deficiency, in yin deficiency with heat, and in pregnancy; not on broken skin or open wounds, and never on the newborn's face
Toxicity: inert when swallowed, but the dust is the danger — inhaled talc causes talcosis, and talc from asbestos-bearing ground may carry asbestiform fibres (the reason pharmacopoeial talc must be tested asbestos-free); talc granulomas follow its entry into a wound or a vein

This is the card. Sign in for the full four-tradition entry — the aligned TCM · Ayurveda · Western · Unani reading, actions, dosing and cautions.