Description

The cuttlebone, the internal shell of Sepia officinalis — a cephalopod mollusc distributed across the Mediterranean and the eastern Atlantic — is composed primarily of calcium carbonate with aragonite and organic matrix components. Known in Ayurveda as Samudra Phen and in Unani as Saadaf Bahr, the cuttlebone has been employed as a medicinal substance across Indian, Arabian, and Mediterranean traditional systems for over two thousand years. In Ayurvedic mineral pharmacy, it undergoes Shodhana (purification) processes before incorporation into preparations traditionally associated with dental hygiene, skin conditions, and calcium-supplementing formulations. The substance was also described by Dioscorides and Pliny for similar external applications in classical Greek and Roman medicine.