मृद्दारशृङ्ग
Lead monoxide, PbO. A yellow to reddish crystalline solid, the material that forms when molten lead is exposed to air, and the by-product of extracting silver from lead ore.
Parthiva · mineral origin · Sadharana Rasa
SHODHANA — NO MINERAL DRAVYA IS USED RAW
Melted and quenched in taila, takra, kanji, gomutra and kulattha kwatha by the nirvapa method, seven times in each, as for the lead dravya. The shodhana does not remove the lead.
TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS
Hindi name: Murdarsang
What the texts say Mriddarshringa does
What the evidence says. Traditional use is documented in the Rasashastra texts. Modern evidence about this dravya is largely toxicological rather than therapeutic.
Side effects and limits
This is lead oxide. Lead has no safe level of exposure, particularly in children, and lead poisoning traced to Ayurvedic preparations is documented by the CDC and by health departments in several countries. The classical use is external, and even external lead preparations are absorbed through broken skin. This entry records what the texts prescribe; it is not a recommendation that anyone use it. Anyone pregnant, on medication or managing a diagnosed condition should speak to a doctor or a qualified practitioner first.
Avoid or ask first: Absolutely not used internally.; Absolutely not used in the raw, unprocessed state.; Not used at all in children, in pregnancy or in anyone of childbearing age.
A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.
| Rasa | TiktaKashaya |
| Guna | GuruRuksha |
| Virya | Ushna |
| Vipaka | Katu |
| Prabhava | The classical use is overwhelmingly external - in lepa and taila for vrana and kushtha - and that is the use a modern practitioner should read the entry as describing. |
| Doshakarma | Kaphavatahara. |
Tikta and kashaya with ushna virya and katu vipaka.
These are the actions the classical texts record. They are statements about what the tradition holds, and this library does not restate them as findings about a human body.
| Upayukta anga | Shuddha mriddarshringa, external use |
| Why it matters | The processed article, never the raw mineral. A lot received raw is a different material from the one the formula names. |
| English | Litharge |
| Hindi | Murdarsang |
| Kannada | Mriddarshringa |
| Tamil | Murdarsang |
| Telugu | Murdarsang |
| Malayalam | Murdarsang |
| Marathi | Murdarsang |
| Gujarati | Murdarsang |
| Bengali | Murdarsang |
| Odia | Murdarsang |
| Urdu | Murdarsang |
| Classical vrana lepa | An external ingredient. |
| Murdarsang taila | Named for the dravya, for external application. |
Industrial litharge from battery and glass manufacture is the same oxide at a different purity and is what the market supplies. It is not prepared for any medicinal use and may carry cadmium and antimony from the smelting route.
Lead monoxide, PbO. A yellow to reddish crystalline solid, the material that forms when molten lead is exposed to air, and the by-product of extracting silver from lead ore.
A WAY TO REMEMBER IT
Mriddarshringa is read as mrid, earth, with darshringa, a horn - for the shape the cooled oxide crusts into. Litharge is Greek lithos, stone, and argyros, silver: it is what is left when silver is separated from lead ore, and Europe named it after the metal it was trying to keep rather than the one it threw away.
Mriddarshringa is among the sadharana rasa of the Rasa Ratna Samuccaya, used there chiefly in external preparations. That is what the tradition records and where.
Constituents. Lead monoxide, PbO. A yellow to reddish crystalline solid, the material that forms when molten lead is exposed to air, and the by-product of extracting silver from lead ore.
| Status | Traditional use is documented in the Rasashastra texts. Modern evidence about this dravya is largely toxicological rather than therapeutic. |
| Suggested | The dravya has a defined place and a defined shodhana in the classical Rasashastra literature, and the processed form has a pharmacopoeial standing in India. That is a standard for the material, not evidence of an effect in a body. |
| Not established | There is not enough good clinical evidence to establish an effect on any named health condition. Long traditional use is not a substitute for that evidence, and this library does not present it as one. |
| The honest gap | Published analyses of preparations containing this dravya rarely record whether shodhana was performed or how, so a result cannot be attributed to the processed article rather than the raw mineral. |
This is lead oxide. Lead has no safe level of exposure, particularly in children, and lead poisoning traced to Ayurvedic preparations is documented by the CDC and by health departments in several countries. The classical use is external, and even external lead preparations are absorbed through broken skin. This entry records what the texts prescribe; it is not a recommendation that anyone use it. Anyone pregnant, on medication or managing a diagnosed condition should speak to a doctor or a qualified practitioner first.
| Contraindications | Absolutely not used internally. Absolutely not used in the raw, unprocessed state. Not used at all in children, in pregnancy or in anyone of childbearing age. |
| Interactions | No specific drug interaction is documented for this dravya. That is the honest state of the evidence, not a statement that none exists - the mineral dravya have almost never been studied for interaction with modern medicines. |
| Pregnancy and breastfeeding | Absolutely contraindicated in pregnancy and in breastfeeding. Lead crosses the placenta, is excreted in milk, and is mobilised from the mother's bone in both states. |