Yang Qi Shi (Actinolite)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Are there cautions or contraindications for Yang Qi Shi?

  Materia medica sources contraindicate Yang Qi Shi in patterns of yin deficiency with heat signs, and state it is not intended for long-term use. As a warming yang tonic, it is traditionally reserved for genuine Kidney-yang-deficiency cold patterns and avoided where heat/fire signs predominate.

  • Not for long-term use — stated consistently across sources; framed as a short-course substance rather than a maintenance tonic.
  • Mineral-fiber safety note (reference only) — actinolite is an amphibole mineral that can occur in an asbestiform (fibrous) habit. One materia medica reference describing the processed medicinal material specifically notes that it should be reduced to a fine powder to limit exposure to residual mineral fibers during handling. This is documented here as a general mineral-safety reference point, not as usage instructions — see Toxicity below for the underlying regulatory/health facts.

  Source: multiple online sources (contraindication / not-long-term-use consensus); one further online source (fiber-handling note, single source — flagged as such). Reference only, not medical advice.

Chinese Herb Toxicity & Overdose

• Actinolite is a calcium–magnesium–iron amphibole silicate that, in its fibrous (asbestiform) habit, is one of the six mineral types formally regulated and studied as asbestos (alongside chrysotile, amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, and anthophyllite). This is a mineralogical/regulatory fact about the mineral species, documented here as a neutral public-safety reference — it is a separate question from the traditional internal use of the processed medicinal mineral, for which no comparable modern toxicology exists (see below).

  • Inhalation hazard (asbestiform habit) — the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies all forms of asbestos, including actinolite asbestos, as a Group 1 human carcinogen: sufficient evidence links inhaled asbestos fibers — including the tremolite/actinolite/anthophyllite group — to lung cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis. Analytical (scanning electron microscopy) studies of mesothelioma tissue samples have identified tremolite/actinolite/anthophyllite fibers in roughly half of cases examined, chiefly in people with occupational or environmental fiber exposure (mining, milling, insulation, construction).
  • Non-asbestiform vs. asbestiform distinction — actinolite also occurs as an ordinary, non-fibrous rock-forming mineral (massive/prismatic habit). In the US, only the asbestiform variety is regulated as asbestos, and reviews of worker cohorts exposed mainly to non-asbestiform amphibole cleavage fragments have not found the same excess of lung cancer or mesothelioma seen with asbestiform actinolite-asbestos exposure — though some reviewers caution that a risk from cleavage fragments meeting WHO fiber-dimension criteria cannot be fully excluded.
  • Route of exposure matters — the carcinogenicity evidence above concerns inhalation of airborne mineral fibers (occupational/environmental dust exposure), not ingestion of the calcined, powdered medicinal mineral. No dedicated modern toxicology or clinical safety data for internal/oral use of the medicinal substance (Actinolitum) were located in this review; this absence of data is a gap, not a safety clearance.

  Sources: NCBI Bookshelf NBK533624 (IARC Monographs — Asbestos, Group 1 overall evaluation); NCBI Bookshelf NBK304374 (IARC Monographs Vol. 100C, asbestos chapter); PMID 8480769 (SEM fiber-type analysis of 94 mesothelioma cases); PMID 2272325 (human epidemiology review of fiber type and disease); PMID 18396365 (lung cancer/mesothelioma risk evaluation, asbestiform vs. non-asbestiform amphibole cleavage fragments). Public-safety mineralogical reference; not a statement about the traditional medicinal substance’s internal-use safety, which is undocumented in the modern literature.

• This herb is considered slightly toxic.
  (while some Chinese herbs are toxic, it must be noted that many come prepared, or are combined, to mitigate their toxicity)

Herb-Drug Interactions

• No well-established clinical herb–drug interactions are documented for Yang Qi Shi (Actinolitum). No dedicated pharmacological or interaction studies for the medicinal mineral were located in this review; the absence of documented interactions reflects a lack of study, not a demonstrated absence of risk. (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 Yang Qi Shi (Actinolite)?

  Essentially none on the traditional medicinal use; the modern scientific literature on actinolite is almost entirely mineralogical and occupational-health research on the mineral’s asbestiform (fibrous) habit. No PubMed/PMC studies evaluating the pharmacology, efficacy, or internal-use safety of the processed medicinal mineral (Actinolitum) as used in Chinese medicine were located.

  • What does exist — a substantial toxicology and epidemiology literature on inhaled actinolite-asbestos fiber, summarized under Toxicity above (IARC classification; mesothelioma fiber-type studies; asbestiform vs. non-asbestiform risk evaluations). This research concerns occupational/environmental airborne exposure, not the TCM medicinal substance.
  • Gap — the traditional Kidney-yang-tonic use of Yang Qi Shi has, to our knowledge, no dedicated modern clinical or pharmacological evaluation; claims of traditional effect remain historical rather than evidence-based.

  Sources: NCBI Bookshelf NBK533624; NCBI Bookshelf NBK304374; PMID 8480769; PMID 2272325; PMID 18396365. Research context, not a therapeutic claim.

Chinese Herb Notes

• What is Yang Qi Shi made of?

  Yang Qi Shi (Actinolitum, 阳起石) is the mineral actinolite, a calcium–magnesium–iron amphibole silicate — mineralogically an intermediate member of the tremolite–ferro-actinolite series, with an approximate formula of Ca₂(Mg,Fe)₅Si₈O₂₂(OH)₂. Older Western materia medica sources also refer to the same substance by the historical mineral name “Amianthus.” Reference sources describe the medicinal material as commonly supplied in a calcined and crushed form (“Duan Yang Qi Shi”), distinguished from the raw stone, and note that good-quality material is typically greenish-white and free of foreign mineral matter. This is identity/reference information, not a preparation instruction.

  Source: multiple online sources (materia medica identity notes); general mineralogy references (chemical formula) for the mineral actinolite.

This herb is considered toxic