What is Ming Fan?

Ming Fan, which is also called
Alumen or
Alum, also known as
Aluminum potassium sulfate dodecahydrate, is an inorganic substance with the chemical formula KAl(SO4)2·12H2O. It is a double salt of aluminum sulfate and potassium sulfate containing crystal water. Insoluble in ethanol, soluble in water. Alum is cold and sour in nature and taste; it has astringent and antibacterial effects, and can be used as a traditional Chinese medicine. It can also be used to prepare aluminum salts, paints, baking powder, tanning materials, mordants, clarifying agents, papermaking, waterproofing agents, etc. It was often used in water purification in daily life.
What's Alum
Alumen, also called Alum, belongs to a refined product of alum stone and is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine. In daily life, alum can be used as an additive for fried dough sticks, vermicelli, and rice noodles. However, because alum contains aluminum, this metal aluminum ion will affect the body’s absorption of iron and calcium after consumption, resulting in osteoporosis, anemia, and may also affect nerves. Cell development, so it should be taken orally as little as possible. In terms of dermatology, external application of alum can play astringent, antiperspirant, sterilizing, and anti-inflammatory effects. Soaking hands and feet with dilute alum solution can play an antiperspirant effect. Wet compresses and external rubbing of armpits can treat underarm odor.
Types of Ming Fan
Ming Fan
Colorless cubic, monoclinic or hexagonal crystal, with glass luster, soluble in water, insoluble in ethanol. Alum is sour in nature and flavor, cold, poisonous. Therefore, it has antibacterial and astringent effects, and can be used as a traditional Chinese medicine. Alum water purification is often used by the folk in the past.
Green Fan
Light blue-green monoclinic crystal, insoluble in ethanol, soluble in water and glycerol. Used as water purifier, mordant, gas purifier, herbicide, pigment, ink etc., and used as blood tonic in medicine.
Dan Fan
Blue copper crystals. As an inorganic compound, it can be used as a therapeutic drug for copper deficiency in livestock, as well as a tapeworm repellent for cattle and sheep, and an emetic for pigs and dogs.
Distribution of Ming Fan

The production areas of Mingfan in China include the Lujiang Alum Mine in Anhui Province. Fanshan Town, Cangnan County, Zhejiang Province is known as the "Alum Capital of the World" because of its rich alum ore reserves. Its alum ore reserves account for about 60% of the world and 80% of China's. The ore deposits are distributed in five adjacent ore belts.
Processing methods of Ming Fan
Collection and processing
After the alum stones is collected, it is crushed, dissolved in water, the solution is collected, concentrated by evaporation, and crystals are precipitated after cooling down. Dissolve the crystals in water, and use middle school chemistry methods to make a supersaturated solution, that is, leave the saturated solution of alum to cool, suspend small alum crystals or other crystal nucleus media in the medium, and repeat the next day.
Processing method
White alum
Take the original medicinal material, remove impurities, mash or grind finely.
Dry alum
Take the clean Ming Fan, knock it into small pieces, put it in a calciner, heat it with strong fire until it melts, continue to calcinate until the expansion and foam become a white honeycomb solid, dry it completely, stop the fire, let it cool, take it out, and grind it into powder.
Ming Fan TCM

Medicine part
A crystalline product refined from digonal alunite.
Taste
Sour, cold.
Tropism
Return spleen meridian.
Effect
Hemostasis, antidiarrheal, dispels phlegm, external use dampness-drying and antipruritic.
Attending
1. For chronic diarrhea, blood in the stool, metrorrhagia and other diseases
Ming Fan astringes astringent intestines and can cure dysentery and diarrhea for a long time. It can be swallowed alone in a small amount; or it can be used together with Galla, Myrobalan and other medicines. For blood in the stool and metrorrhagia, it can also be used together with astringent and hemostatic drugs.
2. For wind-phlegm congestion, or epilepsy and other diseases
Alum has the effect of eliminating phlegm, and can be used together with pinellia, pig tooth saponin, licorice, etc. to treat wind-phlegm congestion, and the sound in the throat is like a saw; it can also be used with turmeric to treat wind-phlegm epilepsy.
3. For eczema itching
External application: Ming Fan has the function of astringing dampness and relieving itching. For example, it can be used together with pomegranate peel to treat psoriasis.
Dosage
Two cents to one cent, decocted and taken.
Appropriate amount for external use.
Related discussion
1. "Compendium": There are four uses of alum stone: to spit out wind-heat phlegm, whichever is sour and bitter; For phlegm retention, dysentery, metrorrhagia, belt, rheumatism, whichever is collected and dampness is also used; for throat pain, carbuncle, and snake bites, whichever is used for detoxification.
2. "Herbal Classic": main cold and heat, dysentery, white fertilization, yin erosion and malignant sores, eye pain, hard bones and teeth.
3. "Bie Lu": remove solid heat in the bone marrow, and remove polyps in the nose.
4. "Theory of Medicinal Properties": control mouse leakage, scrofula, treat epistaxis, produce pharyngeal fluid, and control acute sore throat.
5. "Rihuazi Materia Medica": remove wind and fatigue, eliminate phlegm and quench thirst, store in warm water. Control stroke aphonia, scabies. Take a bath with peach people and green onion soup to sweat.
6. "Materia Medica Yanyi": If the dried fire turns into powder, and the ingrown nails are pasted, and the bleeding in the gaps between the teeth is like a nosebleed, the pasting will heal.
7. "Materia Medica Mengguan": Forbid stool and diarrhea, stop toothache, wash out astringent intestines in anus, apply to abscesses to collect water.
Ming Fan benefits
Eliminate wind phlegm
Ming Fan has a sour and bitter taste, can dispel wind-phlegm, and has a certain therapeutic effect on phlegm blocking the heart orifices, epilepsy and mania. In addition, alum can also remove dampness and reduce jaundice, and help treat damp-heat jaundice.
Astringent intestinal antidiarrheal
Ming Fan is dry, sour and astringent, and has a certain astringent and antidiarrheal effect. It has a better effect on relieving chronic diarrhea and dysentery caused by spleen and stomach yang deficiency and intestinal and stomach instability.
Ming Fan side effects
Calculus
Because Ming Fan is rich in aluminum ions, after the human body ingests excessive alum, most of the aluminum ions will not be absorbed by the digestive system, but cannot be excreted, thus accumulating in local organ tissues to form crystal precipitation, leading to stomach stones, kidney stones, Gallstones etc. are produced.
Cause water and electrolyte disturbance
Excessive aluminum ion content in the human body will affect the absorption of calcium, iron, zinc and other trace elements, which will not only cause water and electrolyte disorders, but also lead to osteoporosis and sepsis. In severe cases, brain cells and nerves will be damaged, affecting children's intelligence, growth and development.
Injury to liver and kidney function
Excessive consumption of Ming Fan can also cause damage to liver and kidney functions, which can cause diseases such as liver cirrhosis or kidney failure.
Ming Fan uses

Ming Fan as water purifier
After dissolving in water, Ming Fan is ionized to produce Al3+, and Al3+ combines with OHˉ produced by water ionization to form aluminum hydroxide. Aluminum hydroxide colloidal particles are positively charged, and when they meet with negatively charged sediment particles, the mutual charges are neutralized. The colloidal particles that have lost their electric charge will soon coalesce together, and the particles will become bigger and bigger, and finally sink to the bottom of the water. In this way, the water becomes clear and clean.
Ming Fan as fire extinguishing agent
The foam fire extinguisher contains about 1mol/L Ming Fan solution and about 1mol/L NaHCO3 (baking soda) solution (and foaming agent), the volume ratio of the two solutions is about 11:2. The excessive amount of alum is to make the baking soda in the fire extinguisher fully react and release a sufficient amount of carbon dioxide to achieve the purpose of extinguishing the fire.
Ming Fan as a bulking agent
When frying fried dough sticks (cakes) or puffed food, if you add baking soda to the flour and then add Ming Fan, the same amount of baking soda will release twice as much carbon dioxide as baking soda alone, so that you can make fried dough sticks (Cake) will swell up in the hot oil pan at once, and you will get crispy and delicious fried dough sticks (cake).
Ming Fan as medicine
Ming Fan has a cold and sour taste, and has a strong astringent effect. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that alum has the effects of detoxifying and killing insects, stopping bleeding and diarrhea, exploding dampness and relieving itching, clearing away heat and eliminating phlegm. Studies in recent years have confirmed that alum also has antibacterial and anti-trichomonas vaginalis effects. Some traditional Chinese medicine uses alum to treat hyperlipidemia, tuberculosis and hemoptysis, duodenal ulcer and other diseases.
Oral
Treats diarrhea and dysentery diseases.
External use
When mosquito bites the skin, it will cause itching on the surface of the skin. You can choose to use alum to clean it to relieve the itching.
Soak feet
Add 3-6 grams of Ming Fan can to the foot bath water every day before going to bed, soak the feet for 10-15 minutes after the alum melts, fumigate once a night, and soak the feet continuously for 5-6 days to relieve the symptoms of sweaty feet.
Other functions
Ming Fan can also be used in the preparation of aluminum salts, paints, tanning agents, mordants, papermaking, waterproofing agents, etc.
How to choose Ming Fan?
Look
Carefully check whether there are crystal particles or white powder in the folds of the Ming Fan, especially under the light, and observe whether the alum has a slight shiny luster.
Touch
The traditional Chinese medicine Ming Fan feels stiff and dry when pinched.
Taste
Gently lick the surface of medicinal materials, alum has a salty, sour and astringent taste.
How to buy Ming Fan?
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