Compendium of Materia Medica (本草纲目), also known as Bencao Gangmu, is a Chinese
materia medica work written by Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty. The title has also been translated as
"Materia Medica, Arranged according to Drug Descriptions and Technical
Aspects." Li Shizhen completed the
first draft of the text in 1578, after conducting readings of 800 other medical
reference books and carrying out 30 years of field study.
The book, consisting of 1,892 entries, epitomized materia
medica in the Ming Dynasty. Compendium
of Materia Medica is regarded as the most complete and comprehensive
medical book ever written in the history of traditional Chinese medicine. It lists all the plants, animals, minerals,
and other items that were believed to have medicinal properties.
When I was studying at a medical university in China,
there was a sculpture of Li Shizhen in front of one of the buildings. Every day, I would walk past that sculpture
to attend classes. I thought to myself
that, someday, I would spend time studying this masterpiece of Traditional
Chinese medicine. Well, it has been many
years—after countless hours in Starbucks over countless weekends at a little
town on the opposite side of the planet earth from that sculpture, I finally
went through the dermatology chapter in the book.
In the future posts, I will be posting recipes and teachings
from Compendium of Materia Medica. For today’s post, here is a recipe on a
facial mask for treating pimples and acne prone skin.
Ingredients: mixing
powders of equal portion of buckwheat, soy bean, red bean, green bean and peas
together with proper amount of water to make a soft paste.
Direction: Use paste as a facial mask. Apply the soft paste to clean skin, message in
small circle for a few minutes. Then, leave
for 15 to 20 min. Wash off with warm
water. For pimples, acne, or open sores,
cover the problematic spot with the paste and leave until dry. Wash off.
If you have acne prone skin, you can make a mixture of above powders and
store in a dry container. Use the
powder as a face wash powder. I’ve been
using this type of face wash powder for years and have never have to use
additive loaded commercial face wash products. I like to mix a little rose
pedal powder into the mixture—I love the smell of the rose in my morning
shower! I also added gelatin powder into
my mix to help the consistency of the paste.
You don’t have to add it. As I have noted before, skincare can be a very
creative process. Once you understand
the activities of various ingredients, imagination is the only limitation.
Thanks for reading.
Connie
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