As has been noted, clinically it has been widely used for the treatment of hypertension, delirium, coronary heart disease, mental illness, schizophrenia, anxiety, and so on. Take treating insomnia as an example. As you know, sleep, as essential as water and food to the human body, is one of extremely important life-sustaining physiological functions. Poor quality of seep will lead to reduced people’s decision making ability, impaired brain function, emotional instability, uncontrolled behavior, paranoia, and lower attention span. And long-term insomnia can, worse still, seriously affect the work and learning, and thus greatly reduce the quality of life and speed up the aging process. As far as insomnia is concerned, it can be triggered by a variety of causes. But apparently in this modern society, most of them are associated with stress, more or less. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, most of drugs of minerals, fossils, and shells are heavy and descending in nature. Heaviness is able to calm and remove timidity and descending means suppress yang. From the point of view of the modern medicine, these herbs are rich in phosphorus and calcium ingredients, which are of great help on tranquilizing and allaying excitement. By the way, Long Chi (Dens Draconis), Zhen Zhu Mu (Pearl Shell), Shi Jue Ming (Abalone Shell), etc. are also considered with ability of calming nerves and helping fall asleep fast.
information from chineseherbshealing