Treatments of gastric, duodenal ulcer by TCM cuttlefish bone

What is cuttlefish bone(Cuttlebone, Hai Piao Xiao)? From the point of view of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the authentic cuttlebone refers to the internal structure from Sepiella maindroni de Rochebrune or Sepia esculenta Hoyle, the species in the family Sepiidae. And it is also commonly known as Sepiae Endoconcha, Endoconcha Sepiae, Os Sepiae seu Sepiellae, Wu Zei Gu, and Sepia esculenta bone. Medicinally it is mainly produced in shallow water of Liaoning, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other coastal provinces.

Bones of Sepiella maindroni de Rochebrune is flat oblong, 9 to 14cm long, 2.5 to 3.5cm wide, about 1.3cm thick, and with thick middle and thin edge. Back side comes with white ridges, slightly reddish sides, and inconspicuous small warts; ventral side is white and with fine wavy horizontal lines from the end to the middle. Horny edge is translucent. Tail is wide flat but with no spicules. It is lightweight, loose, easily broken, and with floured cross section and puff laminated striation. It is slightly fishy in taste and slightly salty in flavor. Bones of Sepia esculenta Hoyle is 13 to 23cm in length, and about 6.5cm in width. Back side has clear warts in slightly layered arrangement; ventral side comes with fine wavy cross-laminated that is accounted for most of the body and longitudinal shallow groove in the middle. Horny edge in the tail becomes wider gradually and tilts to the ventral side. And there is a bone spicule at the end but most of them are broken.

Cuttlefish bone benefits
Today cuttlebones are widely used in the treatments of gastric and duodenal ulcer, bleeding and perforation caused by ulcer, Asthma, leg ulcers, and bleeding after pulling out a tooth and nasal surgery. So, how to take advantage of the health benefits from cuttlebones? And its pharmacological actions can give some inspirations.

Modern cuttlebone pharmacology
1. It resists peptic ulcer, tumor, and radiation and sets a broken bone;
2. Calcium carbonate contained can neutralize stomach acid, change the pH of the stomach contents, reduce pepsin activity, and promote the healing of ulcers;
3. After chitin contained reacts with organic matter in stomach and gastric juice, it could form a protective layer on the surface of the ulcer and then promote the blood coagulation;
4. Animal experiments showed that cuttlebone could obviously promote bone defect repair;
5. Its extract by edetic acid can inhibit S180 sarcoma and ascites sarcoma;
6. Its water extract by intragastric administration can significantly improve the survival rate of rats received 60Co radiation and serotonin levels in the blood.