Pearl
The English word ‘Pearl’ comes from Middle English and old French ‘Perle’, and Greek word “Margarites”.
Other Names-: Moti, mukta, sasi-ratna, gem of the moon, taraka, falling star, jiva-ratna
Color-: White, blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, pink, purple, grey, black, multicolor.
Streak-: white.
Hardness-: 2.5-4.5 on the Mohs scale.
Luster-: Pearly.
Zodiac Sign-: Gemini and Cancer.
Birthstone-: June.
Occurrence– : Persian Gulf, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, Tahiti, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela etc.
Metaphysical Properties-:
- Signifies faith, charity and innocence.
- Enhances personal integrity and helps to provide a focus to one’s attention.
- Symbolizes purity and is known as a “stone of sincerity”.
- Brings truth to situations and loyalty to a “cause”.
- Inhibits boisterous behavior.
- Pearl treats digestive disorders and the soft organs of the body.
- It relieves conditions of bloating and biliousness.
- Pearl increases fertility and eases childbirth.
Varieties-:
- Abalone Pearl iridescent blue color and commonly horn-shaped, found in the mollusk Haliotis.
- Akoya Pearl bead-nucleated Cultured Pearl produced from Akoya.
- Black Pearl any Pearl that is in dark color are often dyed.
- Cortez Pearl dark Pearl grown in the Pinctada Maxima and Pteria Sterna mollusks in Mexico.
- Cultured Pearl grew with the influence of human intervention.
- Freshwater Pearl grew in a non-saline environment in a freshwater mussel.
- Keshi Pearl 100% nacre and therefore technically not true pearls.
- Mabe Pearl rounded Pearl that grows attached to the inside of the oyster’s shell, rather than within its tissue.
- Melo Pearl formed from a marine snail called Melo Melo, Southeast Asia.
- Natural Pearl formed naturally within a mollusk without any human intervention.
- Oriental Pearl synonym of Saltwater Pearl.
- Saltwater Pearl produced by a mollusk such as an oyster in a body of saltwater such as the ocean.
- Scallop Pearl produced by any member of the Pectinidae (scallop) family, technically not considered a true. .
- South Sea Pearl produced by the Pinctada Maxima mollusk.
- Tahitian Pearl is a highly regarded type of Pearl produced in the Black-Lipped Oyster (Pinctada margaritifera).
- Imitation Pearls look like pearls, but do not have either the composition or structure.
Enhancement-: Bleaching. Coating, Colored Impregnation (Dyeing), Irradiation, Skinning.