In Ayurvedic medicine, rasaśāstra (रसशास्त्र) refers to processes by which various , minerals and other substances, including most notably mercury, are purified and combined with herbs in an attempt to treat illnesses.
Origin
The
Kalyāṇakāraka, composed in South India by Ugrāditya, is the earliest medical work to contain alchemical content. It is datable to the early ninth century CE.
It gives descriptions for the processing of mercury and uses technical terminology related to the procedures and implements required for alchemy.
It is the first work to describe purifying (
śodhana) and calcining (
māraṇaʼ) mercury for medicinal use. The first work of the Sanskrit alchemical literary genre called
rasaśāstra is the 10th century
Rasahṛdayatantra. The texts 19 chapters focus on the processing mercury, outlines 18 means to process mercury and discusses the transmutation of metals and the body.
Methods
Early medical texts, especially the
Charaka Samhita and
Susruta Samhita, are often claimed to contain early references to
rasaśāstra. Where these texts use the word
rasa, later commentators interpret
rasa as mercury, despite the word having various other meanings.
The earliest mentions of mercury are to the unprocessed substance and it is not until the 9th century
Kalyāṇakāraka that we find recipes for purifying and calcination.
The 13th century
Śārṅgadharasaṃhitā also contains elaborate descriptions of the processing and uses of mercury.
An important feature is the use of metals, including several that are toxicity. In addition to mercury, gold, silver, iron, copper, tin, lead, zinc and bell metal are used. In addition to these metals, and other substances such as coral, , and are also used.[Mishra, p. 86]
The usual means used to administer these substances is by preparations called bhasma, Sanskrit for "ash". Calcination, which is described in the literature of the art as śodhana, "purification", is the process used to prepare these bhasma for administration. Sublimation and the preparation of a mercury sulfide are also in use in the preparation of its materia medica. A variety of methods are used to achieve this. One involves the heating of thin sheets of metal and then immersing them in oil ( taila), extract ( takra), cow urine ( gomutra) and other substances.[Mishra, pp. 86–88] Others are calcined in heated with fires of cow dung ( puttam).[Mishra, pp. 87–88] Ayurvedic practitioners believe that this process of purification removes undesirable qualities and enhances their therapeutic power.[Mishra, pp. 88]
Toxicity
Modern medicine finds that mercury is inherently toxic, and that its toxicity is not due to the presence of impurities. While mercury does have anti-microbial properties, and used to be widely used in Western medicine, its toxicity does not warrant the risk of using it as a health product in most circumstances.
[ Toxicological Profile for Mercury. U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. March 1999] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also reported a number of cases of lead poisoning associated with Ayurvedic medicine.
Other incidents of heavy metal poisoning have been attributed to the use of
rasashastra compounds in the United States, and
arsenic has also been found in some of the preparations, which have been marketed in the
United States under trade names such as "AyurRelief", "GlucoRite", "Acnenil", "Energize", "Cold Aid", and "Lean Plus".
[Hammett-Stabler, Catherine A. (2011) Herbal Supplements: Efficacy, Toxicity, Interactions with Western Drugs, and Effects on Clinical Laboratory Tests. John Wiley and Sons. pp. 202–205. ]
Ayurvedic practitioners claim that these reports of toxicity are due to failure to follow traditional practices in the mass production of these preparations for sale,[Hammett-Stabler, Catherine A. (2011) Herbal Supplements: Efficacy, Toxicity, Interactions with Western Drugs, and Effects on Clinical Laboratory Tests. John Wiley and Sons. pp. 205–206. ] however there is ample evidence of mercury and lead poisoning. The government of India has ordered that Ayurvedic products must specify their metallic content directly on the labels of the product;
See also
See also
