Standard Operative Procedure of Rasa Bhasma Following Poling Method and its Analytical Standardization

Use of metallic preparations in healthcare is a unique feature Ayurveda. Rasashastra deals with the processing of metals including Mercury, Gold, Silver, Lead, Zinc, Copper etc. in such a way that they can be safely administered and found to be therapeutically effective. Parada i.e. mercury is most important among them and it is in different disease conditions with great authority. Bhasma is one of the forms in which Parada is administered internally which is claimed to be therapeutically highly effective. But being a metal of high sensitivity to heat, preparation of ParadaBhasma is found to be extremely difficult and only a few such attempts are proved to be successful. Here, an attempt was made to prepare Rasa Bhasma by following the reference of BharataBhaishajyaRatnakara with due importance to Standard Operative Procedure. Three batches were prepared to standardize the process. Prepared Bhasma was tested following organoleptic, classical bhasmapareeksha and physico-chemical parameters. Advanced instrumental methods like SEM-EDAX, XRD, DLS and ICP-OES etc were followed to develop analytical standards.