Manahshila

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Mainsil

What the texts say Manahshila does

• Kushthaghna — used in skin disease
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Shwasahara — relieves breathlessness
• Vishaghna — antidote (against poison)

What the evidence says. Toxicological literature is substantial for realgar across both Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine. Efficacy evidence for the classical preparations is not established.

Side effects and limits

This is arsenic, as haratala is. Realgar is used in traditional Chinese medicine as well and arsenic poisoning from both traditions is documented. Realgar converts to more soluble and more toxic arsenic species on exposure to light and air over time, which is a storage problem specific to this mineral.

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy and breastfeeding.; Children.; Renal or hepatic impairment.; and more below.

A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Never given alone. It appears in named yogas — Shwasa Kuthara rasa among them — prepared by a qualified practitioner.

Reported from Sharangadhara Samhita and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India. Laisha states what the texts prescribe; it does not recommend. No quantity here is adjusted for a particular person — not for agni, koshtha, bala, age, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything already being taken.

Manahshila is classed among the Uparasa.

Rasa, guna, virya, vipaka and karma are recorded as the classical texts give them, with the text and section named so a student can open the book and check.

Constantly confused with Haratala. Manahshila is the RED disulphide; Haratala is the yellow trisulphide. Both are arsenic and a shop will supply either under either name.

Arsenic disulphide, As2S2 (also written As4S4). A red arsenic mineral.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Manah-shila is mind-stone. Realgar is from the Arabic rahj al-ghar, powder of the mine.

Manahshila is an uparasa used in classical yogas for shwasa and kasa. As with haratala the texts class it as a poison requiring shodhana.

Constituents. Arsenic disulphide, As2S2 (also written As4S4). A red arsenic mineral.

• This is a study and clinical reference for practitioners and students. The matra and anupana it records are what the classical texts and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India PRESCRIBE — Laisha reports them, it does not recommend them. They are not a prescription for any particular person, and they are not adjusted for your age, agni, koshtha, bala, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything else you are already taking. Only a qualified practitioner who has examined you can do that.
• Traditional classification is recorded as what the classical texts say, with the text and the place in it named. It is not restated as a finding about a human body.
• Nothing here replaces a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or a doctor.