Role of Metals used in Ayurveda Medicines

Ayurveda is our old and invaluable science which our ancestors have been practising to keep their body and mind healthy. 

In today’s fast moving world the seriousness of the  connection of Ayurveda with our day to day life is not widely known due to various reasons one of them being  non passage  of knowledge from generation to generation and one more important reason is misconceptions about Ayurveda as a whole among people of which usage of metal in Ayurvedic medicines is widely know.

Through this article I am looking to clear misconception around ayurvedic medicines made with heavy metals  people are found to have and  would like to share some facts which you may not know.

Our generation is tech savvy and to find any information we Google it. Information on internet is abundant but we should  see the background of people writing the article and verify information recieved.

During interaction with several of my colleagues and aquitances, one most the important misconception that I heard was Ayurvedic medicines have heavy metals in its ingredients and they tend to cause side effects on body for e.g. Rashes , nausea , Vomiting , hyper Acidity etc.

Rasashastra is one of the important discipline of Ayurveda, which covers use of various Ras-kalpas for curing various diseases /illnesses. Ras -kalpas are medicines which contain metals like gold, mercury,copper, silver and iron etc.

According to Ayurveda, nature consists of five elements (Panch -bhautiktatvas ) namely Air ,fire,water,earth and ether and so does human body. For example calcium (earth)is found in nature and also in our bones likewise iron is found in form of ores as well as its present in human blood.  Ayurveda used this correlation between nature and human body in curing illnesses and keep body and mind in sync with nature thus these metals eventually started to be used in Ayurvedic medicines. For example, Gold is used in Ayurveda  for Suvarna prashana in which we use purified gold ashes along with other herbal extracts prepared in ghee that helps to improve intellect and grasping of children. It also improves resistance power, appetite , skin tone etc. 

We all know metals are found either in standalone state or in compound state and also these metals in naturally occurring form have impurities.hence they need to be in pure state to avoid sideeffects,as impurities cause the side effects not the metals.

Ayurvedic texts say  that these metals need to be used only after purification. The various stages of purification called Sanskars.Ayurvedic texts on rasashtrastra have given detailed  guidelines to use these metals to form Ras - kalpas , their usage for treating diseases and also if not used in correct manner i.e. not  purified , improper dosage and not taken under medical supervision and  their impending side effects.

These texts also mention various tests that can be performed to check if impurities in metals are removed 100% , some of these test are as follows

• Vaaritar  – Purified ash of metal should float on water
• Rekhapurna  – After rubbing between forefinger and thumb, the purified ash takes shape of fingerprints ,this is used to examine its fineness.
• Avami  -  Is specially used to examine ash of copper and mercury , if ash kept on tongue in small quantity , it should not have metallic taste and should not cause nausea.
• Nirdhum -  Purified ash will not produce soot when put on fire.

They also talk about the side effects of impurities even in smallest amounts if present while using it as medicine. And further describe the necessary treatments for these side effects

So this clearly suggests that Ayurveda clearly states the way in which these metals should be used , tested and from thousands of  years , able practitioners of Ayurveda have been using these metal containing ras-kalpas to treat illnesses. So it is of utmost importance that when you use these ras-kalpas, they must be taken only after experienced Ayurvedic practitioner examines you and prescribes these medicines according to your body physiology (Prakriti).

So when we come across a discussion saying that Ayurveda medicines containing heavy metals which cause side effects, we should know that contents used haven’t been treated properly.We see today most of the people through Television and print ads or suggestion of near ones start taking medicines which may contain metals which is wrong by all means.  My suggestion is that people should take these medicines only under medical supervision.