ABSTRACT
Background: Bhasmas are traditional Ayurvedic medicines prepared from minerals and metals by tediousprocess which removes toxic properties of metals and minerals and enhances medicinal properties. Wehave synthesized abhraka bhasma by two traditional methods and were analyzed during each stage ofpreparation.Objective: The present study deals with the synthesis and characterization of abhraka bhasma by twodifferent methods, method-1 is commonly used for treating anemia and tropical sprue and method-2 fortreating chronic cough. Hence attempts have been made to see the physico-chemical differences between these methods by using different analytical techniques.Material and methods: Different steps in preparation of abhraka bhasma includes shodhana (purification),dhanyabhraka, marana (incineration) and amritikarana. The prepared bhasma were analyzed by classicalayurvedic tests and modern analytical techniques like XRD, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, SEM, TEM, EDX,BET, DLS and TGA/DTA.Results: The morphological characterization revealed that as-prepared abhraka bhasma products werenano crystalline in nature. Elemental analysis confirms presence of various elements along with carbonsuggesting bhasma as herbo-mineral compound. The XRD studies revealed the presence of KMg3(Si3Al)O10(OH)2 in bhasmas.Conclusion: Characterization study revealed presence of various bonds of different functional groups andformation of nano particles. Abhraka bhasma prepared by method-2 has more proportion of nano particles than that prepared by method-1 and hence will be more effective in its use.
ABSTRACT
Background: Bhasmas are unique Ayurvedic organometallic preparations used for medicinal purpose.Quality of bhasma depends upon quality of starting materials, processing ingredients, meticulous trituration and heating cycle. In Ayurveda, Vanga bhasma is traditional Indian medicine which is anorganometallic preparation treated with plant extract. It is especially used in the treatments of diseasesrelated to gastrointestinal tract and genitor urinary system. However detailed characterization studiesafter synthesis are important which shows authenticity of product.Objective: The present study deals with the preparation of Vanga bhasma according to the procedurementioned in the Ayurvedic literature. Synthesized bhasma was characterized by various analyticaltechniques and also compared with commercial sample.Material and method: Different steps involved in synthesis of Vanga bhasma include shodhan (purification/detoxification), jaran (heating and stirring), bhavan (levigation) and maran (incineration).Bhasma was incinerated (maran process) by traditional method of heating as well as using mufflefurnace. These two products obtained from Maran (incineration) and commercial sample wereanalyzed for quality control checks, on the parameters described in Ayurvedic texts as well as moderntechniques such as TEM, SEM, EDX, XRD, DLS and FTIR were done to find out the nature and form ofthe drug prepared. The in vitro gastric and gastrointestinal (pancreatic) bioaccessibility of Bhasmawere also determined.Results: The study reveals that the synthesized Bhasma was converted into its nontoxic oxide form andhad a highly reduced particle size observed from SEM images. These studies reveal that Vanga Bhasmaprepared by traditional method of heating (Sn1) has 50% nanoparticles (150e300 nm range) that prepared by using electric muffle furnace (Sn2) has 100% nanoparticles (50e100 nm range) while commercial samples (Sn3) has 50% nanoparticles (100e300 nm range).Conclusion: The study confirmed the formation of organometallic compound (SnO2) at the end of themanufacturing process. The percentage bioaccessibility for gastrointestinal digestion is more than thegastric digestion. Hence, it is concluded that Vanga Bhasma can be useful nanomedicine.© 2017 Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore and World Ayurveda Foundation. Publishing Services byElsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).