Title:The Ayurvedic Bhasma: The Ancient Science of Nanomedicine
Volume: 5
Issue: 1
Author(s): Sanjoy Kumar Pal
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Ayurveda, Bhasma, nanomedicine, nanosize, patent, safety.
Abstract: Nanomedicine is the relevance of nanotechnology in the area of healthcare, diagnosis of
disease, cure and prevention of disease. Nanotechnology covers the diverse area of matters at
dimensions between approximately 1 to 100 nanometers. Nanotechnology has enormous applications
in drug delivery field. Nano drug delivery systems can reduce the drug consumption and side-effects
by lowering the deposition of the active agent in the non targeted sites. Ayurveda is thousands of years
old holistic system of Indian medicine. Various herbs, metals and non-metals preparations are used as
medicine in Ayurveda. In the Ayurvedic description, several metallic preparations called Bhasma are in clinical use since
8th century AD. The Puta system of Ayurveda describes that metals or minerals should be heated at high temperature for
melting and then it quench in suitable media like herbal juices or decoction for specified times. The Bhasma (incinerated
metals) is obtained by repeating these methods several times. In this process the toxic effects of the metals are not only
nullified but are transformed into biologically active nanoparticles. When various Bhasmas viz. Swarna bhasma,
Makshika bhasma, Abhrak bhasma, Tamra bhasma and Louha bhasma were subjected to analysis under electron
microscope it was found that they were similar to nanocrystalline materials possessing similar physico-chemical
properties. The therapeutic effect of Bhasma may be attributed to large surface area of materials and small particle size by
which they can easily transported into cell nucleus and to specific target sites as desired.
