Amber – Composition and Uses

Amber is known by many other names throughout the world due to its popularity and medicinal values ​​in the alternative medicine system. It is known as:

English: Ambergris, Arabic: Ashab/ Ambar, Chinese: Lung yen hsiang, French: Ambre, German: die Ambra, Hindi: Amber, Persian: Shah Boo, Urdu: Ambar, Latin: ambra grasea

Amber is a morbid excretion from the sperm whale and is found floating in the ocean or collected from shorelines. Amber is thought to form in the sperm whale’s intestines in response to irritation caused to the whale’s stomach lining by the squid’s sharp, indigestible, parrot-like beaks.

Composition: Contains ambrein (a cholesterol) 85%, a little balsamic extract and ash.

World of Caution: Amber is not Baltic (succinate) amber, which is a fossilized resin secreted by the now-extinct pine tree formed in the Eocene period about 50 million years ago and is used primarily in ornaments and jewelry. Both are only related by the fact that they are both washed up on beaches by mother nature.

Medicinal properties: Amber is a stimulant, antiseptic and antispasmodic. it is very useful in sexual weakness, general weakness, epilepsy, spasms and nervousness. It is also useful in paralysis, facial paralysis, neuritis, weakness of the brain, nerves and heart, and palpitations.

It is widely used in the unani system of alternative medicine, and is an integral part of many classic unani formulations, namely; khamira abrasham hakim arshadwala, Dawaul misk motadil jawaharwali, Mommyae ambar, etc., to name a few drugs commonly used in the unani system of alternative medicine.