SWARNA BHASMAS DO CONTAIN NANOPARTICLES?

Abstract

Traditional medicine has maintained its popularity in every region of the developing world. Its practice is increasingly adopted by people worldwide. Indian traditional system of medicine Ayurveda makes use of unique metallic-herbal preparations (called Bhasmas) These bhasmas are prepared as per procedures described in ancient textsThese  typically involve iterative processes involving calcination of metal  in presence of herbal products.The Swarna bhasma has been used in  treatment of many diseases. In the context of novel properties attributed to nanoparticles, in recent times, the present project aims at chemical characterization of Bhasma preparations. Such characterization would be useful to gain insight into its therapeutic properties. The Swarna bhasma samples from three different manufacturers were procured and physiochemical characterization was carried out. Chemically synthesized, commercially available gold nanoparticles were used as control. Particle size and surface area analysis of the samples indicated the presence of micron-sized particles in the range of 3µm-50µm.  Size of gold nanoparticles ranged from 88nm-206nm. Gold content in the bhasma samples,ranges from 87% to 98%. The studies indicate that commercially available Swarna Bhasmas do not seem to contain nanosized particles.