On Pearl Powder

I've seen freshwater pearl powder being presented as healthy primarily due to it being a natural source of various minerals. Although the sales talk sounded convincing, it's probably good to verify the claims.

Pearl powder is part of traditional Chinese medicine and was mentioned in the Hai Yao Ben Cao. First of, freshwater pearl powder contains primarily calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) and magnesium carbonate, and some proteins, glycoproteins, and polysaccharides (Loh et al., 2021; Latire et al., 2017). Pearls according to a test with a spectrometer also contains 0.2% natrium, 0.04% manganese, 0.03% strontium, and even smaller amounts of barium, magnesium, and lead (Karampelas et al., 2019). These elements are normally present in drinking water or food and either not harmful or even an essential nutrient. Compared to the lead pipes that many old houses still have, these levels of lead should not be a problem (and some also claim that lead is not as unhealthy as the WHO is presenting).

The magnesium makes it anti-inflammatory (Veronese et al., 2022). Furthermore, it has been used to treat ulchers, improve wound healing, reduces the effects of sleep deprivation, and aid bone repair (Loh et al., 2021). Some of these results are simply due to the antioxidative properties, but other effects play a role too.