Lu Gan Shi (Smithsonite)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Dosage

• What is the typical dosage of Lu Gan Shi (Calamine), and how is it prepared?

  Lu Gan Shi is for external use only, in an appropriate (unmeasured) amount as an ultra-fine powder — it is not taken internally in Chinese medicine. Before use the raw mineral must be processed: it is calcined (sometimes quenched in vinegar or in a decoction of heat-clearing herbs such as Huang Lian), then repeatedly ground with water and the fine suspended particles decanted off — a method called water-levigation (“shui fei”) — to remove grit and produce a smooth, non-irritating superfine powder.

  • Ophthalmic use — only the water-levigated (shui fei) superfine powder is used, formulated into an eye wash, eye drops, or ointment; unlevigated powder is considered too coarse/gritty for the eye.
  • Topical/dermatologic use — applied as a dusting powder, or mixed with water or another liquid into a paste, to weeping eczema, sores, or non-healing ulcers.
  • Internal use — none; Lu Gan Shi is not administered internally in Chinese medicine.

  Source: multiple online sources; general TCM mineral-processing (paozhi) literature on water-levigation. Reference only — not a prescription.

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Are there cautions for using Lu Gan Shi (Calamine)?

  Lu Gan Shi is for external use only and must never be taken internally. For ophthalmic use in particular, only properly processed material — calcined and water-levigated (shui fei) to an ultra-fine, grit-free powder — should ever be applied near the eye; coarse or improperly processed mineral powder can itself irritate or scratch the eye and skin.

  • Sourcing/quality (reference note) — as a mined mineral, raw ore quality can vary; the Chinese Pharmacopoeia sets heavy-metal limits (e.g., lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) for mineral medicinal materials generally, and pharmaceutical-grade processing is intended in part to remove such impurities. Reference only; not a finding specific to this herb.
  • Professional guidance — as with other mineral externals, use of properly sourced, correctly processed material under a qualified practitioner is advised, especially for ophthalmic application.

  Source: cross-checked TCM materia medica references; general TCM mineral-processing (paozhi) and Chinese Pharmacopoeia quality-standard literature. Reference disclosure, not a safety guarantee.

Chinese Herb Toxicity & Overdose

• Low, when properly processed and used externally as intended. Lu Gan Shi's active mineral is zinc carbonate; zinc compounds have a long history of external/topical use (including in modern over-the-counter skin preparations) with a favorable topical safety profile. Because Lu Gan Shi is not taken internally and is applied only after calcination and water-levigation, reported toxicity concerns center on using unprocessed or improperly purified material (grit, potential trace mineral impurities) rather than on the processed substance itself.

  Source: materia medica consensus on external-application minerals; general zinc topical-safety literature (see Research below). Reference note, not a safety guarantee.

Herb-Drug Interactions

• No well-established herb–drug interactions are documented for Lu Gan Shi. As an external-use-only mineral applied to skin or the eye surface, systemic absorption is expected to be minimal, and no internal dosing exists through which a systemic interaction would typically arise. Practitioner awareness is still reasonable when applying to broken or extensively compromised skin. (No clinical interaction evidence identified; flagged for practitioner confirmation.)

Western / Biomedical Research

Chinese Herb Clinical Studies & Research

Provided as research context — a summary of published biomedical study, not a therapeutic or medical claim.

• Is there modern research on Lu Gan Shi (Calamine, zinc carbonate)?

  Direct clinical research on Lu Gan Shi itself is limited, but its active mineral basis (zinc) has substantial supporting evidence for topical skin use, and it appears as an ingredient in studied multi-herb external formulas.

  • Zinc and wound healing (mechanistic reviews) — classic reviews describe zinc as an essential cofactor for skin repair enzymes and transcription factors, protective against oxidative and bacterial injury to epithelium, and note that topical zinc therapy is comparatively under-appreciated versus oral zinc supplementation. Mechanistic/review evidence for zinc broadly, not a clinical trial of Lu Gan Shi specifically.
  • Calamine lotion as adjunct therapy for infant eczema (retrospective clinical study) — a 2022 retrospective record review of 50 infants with eczema found that adding calamine lotion to mometasone furoate ointment improved eczema-severity scores, lesion area, and itch severity versus the ointment alone, with no adverse events recorded in either group. Retrospective design; not a randomized trial.
  • Multi-herb burn ointment containing calamine (network pharmacology + clinical data) — a 2025 study of “No. 8 burn ointment” (a formula including calamine among several herbs, beeswax, and sesame oil) reported faster wound healing than Vaseline across 144 burn patients and proposed a HIF-1α-mediated mechanism from network-pharmacology modeling. A multi-ingredient formula study; the contribution of calamine alone cannot be isolated from this design.

  Note: Modern over-the-counter “calamine lotion” (USP) is manufactured from zinc oxide with a small amount of ferric oxide for color — not the natural zinc-carbonate ore (smithsonite) that Lu Gan Shi refers to in Chinese medicine, even though both trace to the historical mineral name “calamine.” The two are related (both zinc-based topical astringents) but not chemically identical; research on commercial calamine lotion should be read as supportive context for zinc's topical action, not as a direct study of the TCM mineral.

  Sources: PMID 17244314 (Lansdown et al., “Zinc in wound healing: theoretical, experimental, and clinical aspects,” Wound Repair and Regeneration, 2007); PMID 8601997 (Lansdown, “Zinc in the healing wound,” Lancet, 1996); PMID 36107506 (calamine lotion as adjunctive therapy for infant eczema, Medicine (Baltimore), 2022); PMC 12319001 (No. 8 burn ointment mechanism study, Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2025). Research context, not a therapeutic claim.

Chinese Herb Notes

• How is Lu Gan Shi different from other external-application minerals like Ming Fan (Alum) and Peng Sha (Borax)?

  All three sit in the “Substances for External Application” category and dry dampness/relieve itching, but Lu Gan Shi is distinguished by its specific eye-clearing action and is used exclusively externally.

  • Lu Gan Shi — prized specifically for the eyes (removes nebula/superficial visual obstruction) as well as damp, weeping skin lesions; used only externally.
  • Ming Fan (Alum) — also dries dampness and stops itching/bleeding topically, but additionally has a small internal-dose use (phlegm, chronic diarrhea, jaundice) that Lu Gan Shi does not share.
  • Peng Sha (Borax) — clears heat and resolves phlegm-fire, used for mouth/throat sores and eye conditions, with its own internal small-dose applications.

  Combinations (reference, not treatment advice): Lu Gan Shi appears as one ingredient among several topical herbs in classical external formulas — for example a hemorrhoid ointment tradition (Ma Ying Long) and a modern-tradition burn ointment (“No. 8 burn ointment,” developed at Anhui Medical University, combining Da Huang, Wu Bei Zi, Di Yu, calamine, beeswax, and sesame oil) studied in the research below. These are multi-ingredient formulas; the effect is not attributable to Lu Gan Shi alone.

  Source: multiple online sources; cross-checked external-application category references; PMC (burn-ointment formula composition, cited in Research below).