रसक
A zinc ore, given as zinc carbonate (smithsonite) or zinc silicate (hemimorphite). It is the ore from which Yashada, metallic zinc, was extracted by distillation in India centuries before the process was known elsewhere.
Parthiva · mineral origin · Maharasa
SHODHANA — NO MINERAL DRAVYA IS USED RAW
Heated red hot and quenched in nimbu swarasa, kanji or triphala kwatha, seven times. The satvapatana that yields metallic zinc from it is a separate operation and is the historically important one.
TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS
Hindi name: Kharpara
What the texts say Rasaka 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
A zinc ore. Zinc itself is comparatively well tolerated, and the real hazard here is what travels with it: cadmium and lead occur naturally alongside zinc and a crude ore carries both. Industrial calamine is not made for internal use. A properly processed bhasma is a different material from the ore. 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.
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 ore.
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 | MadhuraKashayaTikta |
| Guna | LaghuRuksha |
| Virya | Sheeta |
| Vipaka | Katu |
| Prabhava | Rasaka is the source of Yashada. Indian metallurgists distilled zinc from this ore at Zawar in Rajasthan from around the twelfth century, several hundred years before zinc was isolated in Europe, and the Rasashastra texts describe the apparatus. |
| Doshakarma | Kaphapittahara. |
Madhura, kashaya and tikta with sheeta virya and katu vipaka. The cooling profile is the reason it heads the classical eye preparations.
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 | Rasaka bhasma or shuddha kharpara |
| Why it matters | The processed article, never the raw mineral. A lot received raw is a different material from the one the formula names. |
Kharpara is the name in commonest use and the one a supplier will recognise. Tuttha is shared with Sasyaka and is a standing source of confusion between a zinc ore and a copper salt.
| English | Calamine |
| Hindi | Kharpara |
| Kannada | Rasaka |
| Tamil | Kharpara |
| Telugu | Kharpara |
| Malayalam | Kharpara |
| Marathi | Kharpara |
| Gujarati | Kharpara |
| Bengali | Kharpara |
| Odia | Kharpara |
| Urdu | Kharpara |
| Yashada Bhasma | Prepared from the metal extracted from this ore. |
| Nayanamrita Anjana | An ingredient in the classical eye preparations. |
| Pushpanjan | A zinc preparation named in the eye yogas. |
Industrial calamine sold for the cosmetic and pharmaceutical trade is broadly the same material at a different purity and is what most of the market supplies. It is not prepared for internal use and commonly carries lead and cadmium, which travel with zinc in nature and are not removed by a process that was not designed to remove them.
A zinc ore, given as zinc carbonate (smithsonite) or zinc silicate (hemimorphite). It is the ore from which Yashada, metallic zinc, was extracted by distillation in India centuries before the process was known elsewhere.
A WAY TO REMEMBER IT
Rasaka is from rasa, here in the sense of a mineral that yields a metal on distillation. Kharpara means a potsherd, for the shape the ore breaks into. Calamine is from the Latin calamina, by way of the Greek kadmeia - the same root that gives cadmium its name, which is fitting, since cadmium is what comes with it.
Rasaka is one of the eight maharasa of the Rasa Ratna Samuccaya, and the satvapatana that yields metallic zinc from it is described there. That is what the tradition records and where.
Constituents. A zinc ore, given as zinc carbonate (smithsonite) or zinc silicate (hemimorphite). It is the ore from which Yashada, metallic zinc, was extracted by distillation in India centuries before the process was known elsewhere.
| 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. |
A zinc ore. Zinc itself is comparatively well tolerated, and the real hazard here is what travels with it: cadmium and lead occur naturally alongside zinc and a crude ore carries both. Industrial calamine is not made for internal use. A properly processed bhasma is a different material from the ore. 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. |
| Interactions | Zinc reduces the absorption of tetracycline and quinolone antibiotics, and of penicillamine, when taken at the same time. This is documented for zinc as an element and applies to any zinc-bearing preparation. Prolonged high zinc intake causes copper deficiency, because the two compete for absorption. |
| Pregnancy and breastfeeding | Safety in pregnancy has not been established, and no mineral bhasma should be taken in pregnancy except on the decision of a qualified practitioner who has examined the person. The cadmium and lead that accompany crude zinc ore are of particular concern in pregnancy. |