पित्तल
Brass - an alloy of copper and zinc, the proportions varying with the grade. It is a mishra loha, a made metal, not one dug from the ground.
Parthiva · mineral origin · Mishra Loha
SHODHANA — NO MINERAL DRAVYA IS USED RAW
Melted and poured into taila, takra, kanji, gomutra and kulattha kwatha in turn by the nirvapa method, seven times in each. Marana follows by repeated puta with the prescribed media until the bhasma passes the classical tests. The copper in the alloy makes complete marana essential; an incompletely calcined brass bhasma behaves as raw copper does.
TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS
Hindi name: Peetal
What the texts say Pittala 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
Brass is copper and zinc, and the hazards are those of both: copper accumulation where the marana is incomplete, and the ordinary zinc interactions. The bigger modern problem is that machinable brass is deliberately leaded, and scrap plumbing brass is the commonest source offered - so a Pittala bhasma can carry lead that the classical method never anticipated. Anyone pregnant, on medication or managing a diagnosed condition should speak to a doctor or a qualified practitioner first.
Avoid or ask first: Not used in the raw, unprocessed state.; Not used where there is a known disorder of copper metabolism.
A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.
AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE
| Bhasma | 30–125 mg |
| Anupana | Madhu · Ghrita |
| Kala | Adhobhakta |
As bhasma, within a yoga. Never the raw metal.
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.
| Rasa | KatuKashaya |
| Guna | LaghuRukshaTikshna |
| Virya | Ushna |
| Vipaka | Katu |
| Prabhava | Named in the texts for krimi, kushtha and pandu, and it behaves in practice as a milder Tamra because that is chemically most of what it is. |
| Doshakarma | Kaphavatahara. |
Katu 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 | Pittala bhasma |
| Why it matters | The processed article, never the raw mineral. A lot received raw is a different material from the one the formula names. |
Riti is the older name and the one the Rasa texts more often use; Pittala and Peetal are the market names, from the yellow colour.
| English | Brass |
| Hindi | Peetal |
| Kannada | Hittale |
| Tamil | Peetal |
| Telugu | Peetal |
| Malayalam | Peetal |
| Marathi | Peetal |
| Gujarati | Peetal |
| Bengali | Peetal |
| Odia | Peetal |
| Urdu | Peetal |
| Pittala Bhasma | The processed article itself. |
| Classical krimighna yogas | An ingredient in some recensions. |
Modern brass is alloyed with lead to make it machinable, and free-cutting brass may carry two to three per cent lead by design. Scrap brass from plumbing fittings is the commonest raw material offered and is exactly the grade most likely to be leaded. A brass bhasma made from it is a lead preparation nobody intended.
Brass - an alloy of copper and zinc, the proportions varying with the grade. It is a mishra loha, a made metal, not one dug from the ground.
A WAY TO REMEMBER IT
Pittala is from pitta in its sense of yellow - the yellow metal. Brass has no certain etymology in English, which is unusual for a metal known since the Bronze Age.
Pittala is among the mishra loha of the Rasa Ratna Samuccaya, grouped there with Kansya and Varta loha as the made metals. That is what the tradition records.
Constituents. Brass - an alloy of copper and zinc, the proportions varying with the grade. It is a mishra loha, a made metal, not one dug from the ground.
| 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. |
Brass is copper and zinc, and the hazards are those of both: copper accumulation where the marana is incomplete, and the ordinary zinc interactions. The bigger modern problem is that machinable brass is deliberately leaded, and scrap plumbing brass is the commonest source offered - so a Pittala bhasma can carry lead that the classical method never anticipated. Anyone pregnant, on medication or managing a diagnosed condition should speak to a doctor or a qualified practitioner first.
| Contraindications | Not used in the raw, unprocessed state. Not used where there is a known disorder of copper metabolism. |
| 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 | Safety in pregnancy has not been established, and the possibility of lead in the source metal makes it a particular concern in pregnancy. |