☯ TCM Properties

Category: regulating blood

Temperature: neutral

Taste: sour

Meridians: liver

Functions:

Dispels Stasis and Stops Bleeding; Stops Bleeding; Invigorates Blood and Reduces Swelling

Traditional Chinese Uses

Hua Rui Shi (ophicalcite, ophite stone) is a neutral, sour-astringent mineral substance used in Chinese medicine to stop traumatic bleeding and dissolve Blood stasis simultaneously. It is used for hemorrhage from traumatic injuries where both stopping blood loss and preventing clot retention are important goals. Its dual hemostatic-dispersing action makes it appropriate for injuries with both active bleeding and internal bruising. Calcination enhances its astringent and hemostatic properties.

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Botanical Description

Hua Rui Shi is the traditional Chinese pharmacopoeial name for an ornamental serpentine-bearing marble, a metamorphic rock consisting principally of calcite or dolomite intergrown with veins and patches of green serpentine-group minerals (chiefly antigorite and chrysotile). The stone is typically pale greyish-white to creamy yellow with bright green to deep emerald flecks, streaks, or dendritic patterns that resemble flower-stamens, from which the Chinese name (literally flower-stamen stone) derives. It is relatively soft, with the carbonate matrix at Mohs hardness 3 to 4 and the serpentine inclusions slightly harder. The rock takes a fine polish and breaks with an uneven fracture. For medicinal use the stone is calcined and ground to a fine powder of yellowish-white color, light texture, and faintly earthy taste.

Active Constituents

Calcite (calcium carbonate)

Carbonate mineral

Concentration: the principal phase of the rock; identified by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, with calcium shared mainly among calcite, diopside and dolomite

Calcium carbonate is the bulk of the drug and the basis of its modern rationale as a haemostatic. In a study of ophicalcite-inspired materials the authors state directly that the main component of Ophicalcitum is calcium carbonate, and synthetic calcium carbonate microspheres modelled on it were haemostatic without haemolytic or cytotoxic effects. At the traditional dose of 9-15 g this also means the patient is swallowing gram quantities of calcium carbonate, with all the antacid and cation-binding consequences that implies.

Dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate)

Carbonate mineral

Concentration: identified as a major phase by Raman and XRD; hosts part of both the calcium and the magnesium

The second carbonate phase of the rock, contributing to the acid-neutralising behaviour of the powdered drug.

Serpentine

Magnesium phyllosilicate (serpentine group)

Concentration: identified by Raman spectroscopy and XRD; the phase that gives the rock its green veining and its Chinese and Latin names

The serpentine veining is what makes this rock ophicalcite rather than plain marble, and is the basis of the drug's identity. It is essentially insoluble and is not thought to contribute pharmacological activity by mouth.

Chlorite

Phyllosilicate mineral

Concentration: identified by Raman spectroscopy and XRD as an accessory phase

An accessory silicate phase of the rock with no pharmacological role; relevant to identity and quality control.

Magnetite

Iron oxide mineral

Concentration: identified by Raman spectroscopy and XRD as an accessory phase; iron is also detected by ICP-MS

An accessory oxide phase accounting for part of the iron detected by elemental analysis.

Diopside and olivine

Silicate minerals (pyroxene and nesosilicate)

Concentration: resolved by automated mineral identification; magnesium occurs chiefly in olivine, diopside and dolomite

Accessory silicates that host much of the magnesium in the rock. Older Chinese descriptions also list tremolite among the impurities, which matters for quality control because tremolite is an amphibole that can occur in asbestiform habit.

Copper, lead and arsenic

Trace metal and metalloid contaminants

Concentration: detected frequently by ICP-MS in raw material; the water-flying (shui fei) levigation step significantly reduced copper and lead, and calcination with vinegar or water-quenching removed arsenic and chromium

These are contaminants of the geological material, not therapeutic constituents. Their presence is the reason the traditional processing steps are not optional: the same analytical study that found them showed that levigation and vinegar calcination substantially reduce or remove them, and concluded that the processed products are safe. Copper, lead and zinc contents correlated positively with each other and inversely with calcium and magnesium, so a purer carbonate specimen is also a cleaner one.

⚠ Drug Interactions

Tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones, levothyroxine, bisphosphonates, oral iron and other cation-chelating or acid-dependent drugs

Major Evidence: Probable

Hua Rui Shi is predominantly calcium carbonate, taken at 9-15 g in decoction or 1-1.5 g as powder. Calcium carbonate at gram doses is a well-characterised antacid and divalent-cation source: it chelates tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones in the gut lumen, impairs levothyroxine and bisphosphonate absorption, and raises gastric pH. No interaction study has been done on the mineral drug itself, so this entry is extrapolated from the pharmacology of its principal component rather than measured for Ophicalcitum - but the extrapolation is direct, because the drug is the component.

Clinical note: Separate Hua Rui Shi from tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones, levothyroxine, bisphosphonates and oral iron by at least two hours, and preferably four for levothyroxine. Take a full conventional medication list before dispensing any gram-dose mineral drug.

Stalactitum (Zhong Ru Shi) supplied as Hua Rui Shi

Moderate Evidence: Established

Both drugs are calcium-carbonate mineral medicinals and can be confused in trade. In the 2026 multi-spectroscopy study, orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis was needed to distinguish Ophicalcitum from Stalactitum, and it did so on calcium and magnesium content - Ophicalcitum carries the magnesium-bearing serpentine, dolomite, olivine and diopside phases that Stalactitum lacks. That an analytical model was developed for the purpose indicates the substitution is a live quality-control problem rather than a hypothetical one.

Clinical note: Buy from suppliers who can show mineralogical or spectroscopic identification. Green serpentine veining in a white to grey carbonate ground is the visual identity of genuine Hua Rui Shi.

Other heavy-metal-bearing mineral medicinals (cinnabar, realgar, litharge) and cumulative lead or arsenic exposure

Moderate Evidence: Possible

ICP-MS analysis of Ophicalcitum found frequent occurrences of copper, lead and arsenic in the raw mineral. Processing removes much of this - water-flying significantly reduced copper and lead, and vinegar calcination or water-quenching removed arsenic and chromium - but unprocessed or poorly processed material carries the load into the patient, and it adds to any exposure from other mineral drugs in the same formula.

Clinical note: Use only processed (calcined, and preferably vinegar-calcined or levigated) material. Avoid stacking multiple mineral medicinals, and avoid the drug entirely in pregnancy, in children and in renal impairment.

Antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy

Theoretical Evidence: Theoretical

Ophicalcite at a wound interface activates platelets and triggers the coagulation cascade rapidly, which is the mechanism demonstrated for a graphene-ophicalcite haemostatic sponge in vitro and in a rat femoral artery model. That work is topical, and there is no evidence that oral Hua Rui Shi produces a measurable systemic procoagulant effect. The entry is flagged only because the drug is given orally to patients who bleed, some of whom are anticoagulated for good reason.

Clinical note: Do not use Hua Rui Shi as a reason to reduce or withhold prescribed anticoagulation, and investigate the cause of bleeding rather than treating it symptomatically with a mineral haemostatic.

Dosage

Form	Amount	Frequency	Duration	Population	Notes
decoction, or powder/pills	4.5–9 g	Daily	—	—	中国药典 2020 【用法与用量】4.5～9g，多研末服。外用适量。【性味与归经】酸、涩，平。归肝经。 — Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020, quoted verbatim; route and cautions preserved. Replaces a cleared category-filler value.

Dui Yao — Herb Pairs

The classical two-herb combinations this herb appears in, each with an action neither herb has alone.

with San Qi 三七

The combination stops bleeding while transforming stasis, so hemorrhage is controlled without leaving clotted blood behind.

Coughing, vomiting or nosebleed of blood and bleeding with stasis; the formula also contains Xue Yu Tan.

Core pair of a classical formula — Hua Xue Dan, Yi Xue Zhong Zhong Can Xi Lu (Zhang Xichun)

Evidence Tier

Limited evidence · 2 studies

Recorded studies by study design, strongest design at the top. This is a study-design tier only, not a GRADE rating: it does not weigh risk of bias, consistency or precision.

Systematic review / meta-analysis

0

Randomized controlled trial

0

Other clinical trial

0

Observational / case report

0

In vitro / animal

2

1 verified · 1 unverified

Show 2 studies

Graphene-ophicalcite heterogeneous composite sponge for rapid hemostasis
Ophicalcitum-Inspired Microspheres as a Topical Hemostatic Agent

Other / unclassified

0

Verified: design read from PubMed for a DOI that resolves to the cited paper Unverified: taken from the study's recorded description

Clinical Studies

Graphene-ophicalcite heterogeneous composite sponge for rapid hemostasis

Wu B, Du F, A W, Liu F, Liu Y, Zheng W, Li G, Wang X (2022) Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces animal Verified: In vitro / animal

A cross-linked graphene sponge was surface-loaded with ophicalcite to make a heterogeneous composite haemostat. The graphene skeleton concentrated blood cells and coagulation components at the wound interface while the ophicalcite at the interface activated platelets and triggered the coagulation cascade. The blood clotting index fell to 33.9% for the composite versus 46.3% for ophicalcite alone and 67.5% for the graphene sponge alone, and the composite stopped bleeding within 51 seconds in a rat femoral artery model. This is the best mechanistic evidence that the mineral itself is procoagulant, and it is topical.

DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2022.112596 Link

Ophicalcitum-Inspired Microspheres as a Topical Hemostatic Agent

Liu Y, Wan F, Ba R, Han Y, Geng T, Bao B, Yao W, Xiong WW, Zhang L, Cheng FF (2025) ACS Applied Bio Materials in vitro

Taking Ophicalcitum as the starting point on the grounds that its main component is calcium carbonate, the authors synthesised calcium carbonate microspheres of differing particle size and loaded them with luteolin. The microspheres were haemostatic irrespective of particle size and showed no haemolytic, cytotoxic or metabolic toxic effects, and the luteolin load promoted skin healing. Note that the material tested is synthetic calcium carbonate inspired by the drug, not the mineral drug itself.

DOI: 10.1021/acsabm.5c00925 Link

Historical Texts

Jia You Ben Cao

Northern Song dynasty

The earliest materia medica to record Hua Rui Shi. It gives the drug's two core indications, which have not changed since: stopping bleeding from incised wounds, and treating postpartum blood collapse with retained congealed blood.

Shi Yao Shen Shu

Yuan dynasty

Ge Kejiu's formulary contains Hua Rui Shi San, the classical single-ingredient application for catastrophic internal haemorrhage. The stone is calcined and powdered and taken in boys' urine, with wine added for men and vinegar for women - the earliest explicit statement that the drug is used calcined rather than raw.

Ben Cao Gang Mu

Ming dynasty

Li Shizhen gives the drug as neutral in nature and astringent and sour in flavour, with the function of stopping bleeding and transforming congealed blood into water, and records its use to expel a dead fetus and a retained placenta.

Ben Cao Qiu Zhen

Qing dynasty

Characterises Hua Rui Shi as a jie yao, a drastic or plundering remedy, and directs that after it has done its work the patient must be rescued with Du Shen Tang (ginseng alone) to repair the damage to blood and tissue. This is the classical statement that the drug is not to be used casually or repeatedly.

De Pei Ben Cao