Tabasheer

I. What is Tabasheer?
II. Medical Uses
III. Chemical Constituents
 

Tabasheer is a hard, whitish, translucent substance extracted from the joints of bamboo.  Consisting chiefly of pure silica, this opal-like herbaceous gem is highly valued in the East for medicinal purposes, and has long been considered a love potion of almost mythical powers.  According to traditional Oriental belief, being in a bamboo grove (a favorite dwelling place of the Buddha) restores calmness and stimulates creativity.  Called “tian zhu huang” in Mandarin, which translates to “heavenly bamboo yellow,” tabasheer is a versatile, highly demanded substance described to be cold in nature and sweet in taste.  Although tabasheer comes from many different bamboo, largest quantities of this herb’s siliceous secretions have been found in Melocanna baccifera, Bambusa textilis, and Gigantochloa apus.
 

As a very important ingredient in many Chinese medicines, tabasheer has a wide variety of applications:

• aphrodisiac in Indian, Chinese, and other Asian cultures
• asthma treatment calms mind and benefits eyes childhood convulsive disease clears away heat and cools the blood
• clears obscuration from the heart, mind, and lungs
• coma and stroke rehabilitation
• cooling tonic irritability and sleeplessness
• medicine for the cure of bilious vomiting, bloody flux, piles, and various other diseases in the East Indies
• poison antidote
• relieves cough and eliminates phlegm
• stimulant treats and cures paralytic complaints in Indian culture
• treats spasms and convulsions due to phlegm

Bamboo - the Rainforest's Universal, Renewable, Spiritual Resource.
Bamboos
Dictionary of Difficult Words
Farrelly, D. 1984. The Book of Bamboo. San Francisco: 64-65.
HERB WEB
Quindembo Bamboo
Techno-Shaman (Bamboo silica)
Techno-Shaman (Bibliography)
Varieties of Opal
Websters Revised Unabridged Dictionary  1913