Abstract
Rasauṣadhi, medicinal preparations made of mercury, form an important group of ayurvedic rasaśāstra medicines. Their manufacture, however, is decreasing due to the lack of reliable preparation for its safe and effective use. Rasasindūra is one such mercury-based compound that requires skill and experience to prepare. This practice report describes an event where this product was prepared in the academic setting of Smt. K. G. Mittal Punarvasu Ayurvedic College, Mumbai, in the winter of 1986–7, emphasising the specific skills that are required to make a reliable product, and thus providing a preliminary model for further studies of traditional drug processing techniques.
Introduction
In India, Nāgārjuna is considered the pioneer of rasaśāstra, a branch of knowledge that deals with the alchemical preparations and therapeutic use of mercury-containing compounds.1 Some herbo-minerals constituting bhasmas are particular mercury-containing compounds, which were introduced to the ayurvedic pharmacopoeia over time. They were known for their specific therapeutic activities, ease of use, and long-lasting shelf-life compared to other herbo-minerals. They are primarily prescribed to remove toxic substances from the body.2
Mercury is a highly unstable metal that is liquid at room temperature. It has been of great therapeutic interest for practitioners of Ayurveda and Siddha systems of medicine because of its ability to amalgamate with other substances. Due to its unique physical properties, mercury can reach the targeted tissue system quickly and act as a catalytic agent for other therapeutics.3 In classical Indian medical literature, mercury holds a predominant role among the metals within rasaśāstra medicines. The term rasa in Sanskrit is applied to several substances, such as the ‘juice of a fruit’, or rasadhātu, which refers to the ‘primary metabolic principle’ in ayurvedic physiology. This is namely a circulating tissue system similar to the modern understanding of plasma in the body. Mercury is termed rasa because of its capacity to ‘amalgamate’ or ‘digest’ all other metals. It is considered a rasāyana that helps prevent the ageing process and treats serious ailments. With all these attributes, mercury is considered ‘the king amongst all metals’, a rasarāja.4 The following sections describe the preparation of two kinds of mercurial compounds.
Two Medicinal Mercury Sulphide Compounds: Kajjali and Rasasindūra
Rasāyana texts describe two popular mercury compounds, called kajjali and rasasindūra. The potent properties of mercury are stabilised by its trituration with ‘sulphur’ (gandhaka), which has a natural affinity to form a unique compound with mercury through a grinding process. This triturated black compound made of ‘purified’ mercury and sulphur is black mercury sulphide, called kajjali. It provides a structural and functional stability to a variety of medicinal preparations made from mercury. This kajjali compound provides the base material for many other therapeutic formulas available on the market today, such as Tribhuvan Kirti Rasa, Sutshekhar Rasa, or Lakshmivilas Rasa.5
Rasasindūra is also a common formula made by sublimating mercury with sulphur through a heating process, but the result of which is red mercury sulphide rather than the black form. Rasasindūra is an ayurvedic mercurial compound therapeutically used for ‘pain’ (śūla), ‘inflammations’ (śotha), ‘dermatosis’ (kuṣṭha), ‘tuberculosis’ (rājayakṣma), ‘chronic fevers’ (jīrṇajvara), and ‘haemorrhoids’ (arśa); it is also known as an ‘aphrodisiac’ (vṛṣya).6 Yogavāhi is the Sanskrit term that refers to an attribute of a substance that has the ability to adopt the properties of another substance to which it gets attached during processing. Rasasindūra has such yogavāhi attributes, since processed mercury is its base. It has therefore the ability to add potency to other herbo-mineral substances. As a result, a lesser quantity of those substances is required for the formula.7 Rasasindūra is one of the kūpipakvarasāyana, a potent medicinal form prepared in a ‘glass bottle’ or kūpi.8
Chemically, both rasasindūra and kajjali are mercury sulphide (HgS); but rasasindūra is of red colour and kajjali is black. The kajjali made with simple grinding is found to be metacinnabar (β-HgS), whereas rasasindūra, the preparation of which involved the application of heat, is found to be cinnabar (α-HgS).9 Although having similar components, the rasasindūra that is made after heating black mercury sulphide is considered more potent.10
The following images, which were reproduced from old slides, depict the preparation of rasasindūra from kajjali at Smt. K. G. Mittal Punarvasu Ayurvedic College, Mumbai, over the course of 48 hours, in the winter of 1986–7. The major stages of this preparation have been described in several texts, including the Rasa Tarangini by Sadanand Sharma.11 Winter is the preferred season in India to prepare this compound. The process normally begins in the evening, or at night, since it generates a lot of heat. The changing colours of the escaping vapours with their different shades, as well as the colours of the flame at a later stage in the processing, reflect the ongoing chemical changes due to heating, and these are best seen in the dark.12 In the following description, the process of preparing kajjali and rasasindūra are explained in detail.
Kajjali, which was triturated with Aloe vera juice and cow’s milk in a khalvayantra
Citation: Asian Medicine 8, 1 (2013) ; 10.1163/15734218-12341286
Preparation of Kajjali and Rasasindūra13
Mercury and sulphur are detoxified with the juice of kumāri (Aloe vera) and with godugdha (cow’s milk). Both are mixed in equal quantity and triturated with a pestle in a mortar, called khalvayantra, until the mixture turns black and becomes difficult to triturate further (see Fig. 1). The khalvayantra is made of stone with a specific shape and measurement so as to avoid mercury spilling during the process of trituration. The pressure administered by the person triturating helps to disintegrate the ingredients into small particles; friction generates heat and the movement helps to form the new compound.
A vālukayantra, heated from below in a puṭa. The glass bottle is inside the clay pot
Citation: Asian Medicine 8, 1 (2013) ; 10.1163/15734218-12341286
Vālukayantra: Heating in a Sand-filled Apparatus (See Fig. 2)
A round container, called a vālukayantra, is prepared from clay and filled up to two inches with washed and dried sand. A kūpi is a glass bottle with a round bottom, narrow elongated mouth, and dark in colour. It is covered three to ten times with cloth that has been soaked and dried in clay. The kūpi is filled with the triturated kajjali and is placed inside the vālukayantra. Sand helps to maintain the temperature, and the cloth covers on the bottle protect it from extreme heat. The sand also helps to keep the glass bottle steady while the mercury is agitated inside.14
Puṭapāka in Bhatti: The Heating Process in a Traditional Sand Brick Oven
Puṭa is a pit or an oven-like structure prepared for heating.15 The size of the inner pit determines the air and heat required for the process. In practice, the traditional furnace, a brick oven called bhatti, is prepared on the floor with sand bricks. The vālukayantra, where dry sand is used as a medium to transfer heat, is placed on the furnace and heated with a fire below (see Fig. 2).16
The temperature is maintained according to textual descriptions and as explained by ayurvedic physicians proficient in mercurial compounds, who are known as rasavaidya. There are several parameters involved in the control of the heating process that need to be carefully determined: the heating of the base apparatus, the liquid formation of kajjali, and the crystallisation, vaporisation, and the cooling of kajjali inside the bottle. The heating may be slow, medium, or strong, depending on the ingredients and their proportions. Sequential chemical transformation of the substance under process in the kūpi is achieved through the variable parameters of heating the kūpi.
During the heating process, small particles emerge from the yantra (round container). Before the introduction of electric furnaces, which nowadays allow for a controlled and standardised heating process, the varicoloured smoke and vapour, or the absence of vapour, were observed to regulate the heating process (see Fig. 3). A slick rod of iron is used to stir up the substance inside the kūpi and to let out extra vapours. It is also used to determine when the mouth of the kūpi eventually has to be closed in order to collect the material. These are some of the assessment skills that a rasavaidya acquires over time through observation and experience.17
Collecting the Transformed Compound
The heating is stopped after it has been confirmed that the heated substance has been fully transformed. The furnace is allowed to cool down on its own. The kūpi is removed and cleaned from the outside (see Fig. 4). Then the mouth of the kūpi is closed with a wooden cork and sealed with sticky material, for example, jaggery and quicklime.
After six hours, the kūpi is burnt directly in the fire (see Fig. 5). Water is sprinkled over it at the point when the fire decreases so as to break and divide the kūpi into two vertical parts containing two separate compounds. The residue at the bottom of the kūpi contains impurities, unsuitable for medicines, unless subjected to further processing. The usable part is the reddish dark coloured compound that is collected from the neck or gala of the bottle; this is why it is called ‘the rasāyana that gets deposited in the neck’ (galastharasāyana). This final product is rasasindūra, the red mercury sulphide. When ground into a powder or rubbed on a stone, it becomes red like the colour of the rising sun.
Varicoloured flames emerge from the kūpi indicating the process of transformation. The iron rod is seen inserted at the top of the kūpi
Citation: Asian Medicine 8, 1 (2013) ; 10.1163/15734218-12341286
Discussion
Rasaśāstra texts describe both the toxic effects of mercury and 18 types of ‘detoxification processes’ known as saṃskāras.18 These texts provide extensive descriptions about metals and minerals, specific methods of preparation and process, instruments designed for specific purposes, several compounds and their therapeutic indications, accurate dosage, methods of administration, as well as contraindications and antidotes.
Skills relating to the fine art of the traditional processing of mercury, without using modern electrical equipment, are vanishing. If lost, it will be a great loss not only of Ayurveda’s medical tradition but of knowledge in general. As an ayurvedic practitioner, I have personally observed and experienced the positive effects of these herbo-mineral compounds as they are applied to difficult disease conditions, such as acute respiratory infections, tuberculosis, irritable bowel syndrome, even cardiac conditions, and several others. Increasing urbanisation and industrialisation has compromised the ability of individual practitioners to undertake such preparations by themselves at their home pharmacies and also to ensure their quality. The fear of its toxic effects is real, especially when the manufacturing process of its preparation is done under poor controls. The fear of toxicity from mercury, one of the main ingredients, or other metals like arsenic, as reported and publicised,19 has also led to the reduced confidence of ayurvedic physicians to use them to treat serious ailments as was the practice earlier.
The outside of the glass bottle or kūpi is cleaned and its mouth sealed
Citation: Asian Medicine 8, 1 (2013) ; 10.1163/15734218-12341286
Standardisation is necessary for a regular production of medicines, but it is an especially challenging task for the preparation of rasaśāstra medicines. Learning, training, and practising Ayurveda has undergone great changes through increased institutionalisation and the introduction of modern equipment. Over the last few decades, this has created a void in the ways in which the traditional processing knowledge is imparted to vaidyas to enable them to take on the challenges to treat acute or severe disease conditions. This brief description on making rasaśāstra medicines thus suggests integrating traditional experiences with modern technology as a necessary step for the revival of these practices. It is therefore the goal of a practice report like this to encourage further systematic studies of such practices. This is both to encourage efforts towards a renaissance of traditional ayurvedic drug processing techniques and to establish manufacturing guidelines to ensure the safe and effective production of rasaśāstra medicines.
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Vandana Kozarekar for her support with the preparation of this article.
Photo credits: All photographs are by the author.
1 Rao and Vidyalankar (eds) 1985, p. 71.
4 Sharma 1967, p. 71.
7 Puaranik and Dhamankar 1964, p. 285.
8 Sharma 1967, p. 135.
9 Palbag and Gautam 2012.
11 Sharma 1967.
12 Puaranik and Dhamankar 1964, p. 284.
13 Description according to Sharma 1967.
17 Puaranik and Dhamankar 1964, p. 290.
19 For example, Saper et al. 2004.
Bibliography
Palbag S. & Gautam D. N. S. ‘Chemical Anomalies of “Parada” (Mercury) and Structural Dissimilarities of Fundamental Groups of “Parada” (Mercurial) Preparation: A Study’ Rasamruta 2012 4 11 1 12
Puaranik G. V. (Vaidya) & Dhamankar P. V. (Vaidya) Ayurvedeeya Aushadhikaran (in Marathi) 1964 Mumbai Shree Dhootapapeshwar Ltd.
Rao S. K. R. & Vidyalankar Encyclopaedia of Indian Medicine 1985 vol. 1 Bombay Popular Prakashan on behalf of Dr V. Parameshvara Charitable Trust, Bangalore
Saper R. B. , Kales S. N. , Paquin J. & Burns M. J. et al. ‘Heavy Metal Content of Ayurvedic Herbal Medicine Products’ Journal of the American Medical Association 2004 292 23 2868 2873
Sharma S. Shastri K. Rasa Tarangini 1967 New Delhi Motilal Banarsidass
Vāgbhaṭṭa II Kalidas Vaidya J. Rasaratnasamuccaya 1965 Mumbai Shri Venkateshwar Press
- 1
Rao and Vidyalankar (eds) 1985, p. 71.
- 2
Vāgbhaṭṭa II 1965, p. 706.
- 3
Ibid., p. 13.
- 4
Sharma 1967, p. 71.
- 5
Ibid., p. 16.
- 6
Ibid., pp. 140–1.
- 7
Puaranik and Dhamankar 1964, p. 285.
- 8
Sharma 1967, p. 135.
- 9
Palbag and Gautam 2012.
- 11
Sharma 1967.
- 12
Puaranik and Dhamankar 1964, p. 284.
- 13
Description according to Sharma 1967.
- 14
Ibid., p. 52.
- 15
Ibid., p. 33.
- 16
Ibid., p. 135.
- 17
Puaranik and Dhamankar 1964, p. 290.
- 18
Vāgbhaṭṭa II 1965, p. 221.
- 19
For example, Saper et al. 2004.
