Ci Shi (Magnetite) (Magnetitum — mineral)
What Is Ci Shi (Magnetite)?
Ci Shi (Magnetite) is listed botanically as Magnetitum — mineral. The material in circulation is mineral. Ci Shi (Magnetite) is the name in everyday use, while Magnetitum — mineral is the name that identifies it unambiguously across languages, trade documents and safety literature. Its character is described as metallic, odorless, which is often how the raw material is checked for quality.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ci Shi (Magnetite) is a long-standing entry. It appears in the classical Chinese materia medica, where entries were organised by taste, temperature and the channels a substance was said to enter, and it has been carried forward through centuries of formula literature. Beyond its practical use it carries cultural associations — TCM: draws Qi downward.
Today most searches for Ci Shi (Magnetite) come from people reading about anxiety, sleep and eye health, or checking how it sits alongside a medication they already take. The use most often documented in the literature is TCM: calms the spirit for insomnia and palpitations, followed by TCM: tinnitus and blurred vision.
How Does Ci Shi (Magnetite) Work?
Ci Shi (Magnetite) works as a mixture rather than a single isolated compound, and its profile is usually described by the class of constituents present in mineral rather than by one marker molecule.
Chinese medicine describes substances by temperature, flavour and channel entered, and rarely uses a plant alone — it is weighted inside a formula against other ingredients. That older description was arrived at without chemistry, and it does not map neatly onto constituent names — but it records centuries of observation about dose, preparation and who the plant suited.
Published research is sparse, so most of what is documented here comes from traditional use and preliminary laboratory work, and this profile cites 1 source. Reported findings centre on fe₃O₄ iron oxide. Where research exists, it examines TCM: calms the spirit for insomnia and palpitations and TCM: tinnitus and blurred vision. These are areas of study, not established outcomes, and results differ by preparation and dose.
How the plant is prepared changes what you actually get. Its constituents move readily into water and alcohol — so a preparation made in another medium will not carry the same fraction of the plant, which is why traditional recipes specify one over another.
The reason Ci Shi (Magnetite) is treated as its own entry rather than a substitute for a related plant is proportion: related species share several of these compound classes, but not in the same ratio or concentration.
Because these constituents are processed by the same pathways that handle many medicines, Ci Shi (Magnetite) is documented as interacting with iron supplements. That is a question of shared metabolism rather than of potency, and it is the main reason the plant is listed in interaction references at all.
Dose, plant part and growing conditions all shift the constituent profile, so two products carrying the name Ci Shi (Magnetite) can differ substantially; this is why reference entries specify mineral and, where they exist, standardisation markers.