सस्यक
Copper sulphate, CuSO4 and its hydrates - the blue crystalline mineral chalcanthite. The classical description is of a peacock-blue crystal, which is the name it carries.
Parthiva · mineral origin · Maharasa
SHODHANA — NO MINERAL DRAVYA IS USED RAW
Swedana in nimbu swarasa or in godugdha by the dola yantra, repeatedly. Some texts prescribe bhavana with the juice of bhringaraja. The raw salt is corrosive and the shodhana is not a refinement here but the difference between a medicine and a poison.
TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS
Hindi name: Neela thotha
What the texts say Sasyaka 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 copper sulphate. Raw copper sulphate is corrosive and is a documented cause of poisoning: ingestion causes vomiting, gastrointestinal bleeding, and in larger amounts haemolysis, liver injury and kidney failure. It has been used deliberately for self-poisoning in South Asia, which is how most of the clinical literature on it exists. It is a medicine only after shodhana and only within a yoga, and the difference between the two states is not a matter of degree. 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 in the raw, unprocessed state by any route.; Not used where there is a known disorder of copper metabolism.
A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.
A Samhita can only be read forwards, from the group to its members. This is the same list read backwards.
AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE
| Shuddha sasyaka | 15–30 mg, within a yoga, specialist use only |
| Anupana | Madhu |
| Kala | As the yoga directs |
A quantity for the processed article inside a compound preparation, prescribed by a practitioner trained in Rasashastra. Never the raw salt.
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 | KashayaMadhura |
| Guna | LaghuRukshaTikshna |
| Virya | Ushna |
| Vipaka | Katu |
| Prabhava | Named in the texts as vamaka - an emetic - and as a lekhana for the eye and the skin, which is the pairing the classical yogas use it for. |
| Doshakarma | Kaphapittahara. |
Kashaya and madhura 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 sasyaka, and only within a yoga |
| Why it matters | The processed article, never the raw mineral. A lot received raw is a different material from the one the formula names. |
Mayurtuttha and Shikhigriva both name the peacock's neck, for the blue. Tuttha is shared with the uparasa listing and is why the same mineral appears in two groups in different texts.
| English | Blue vitriol |
| Hindi | Neela thotha |
| Kannada | Mayilthutham |
| Tamil | Neela thotha |
| Telugu | Neela thotha |
| Malayalam | Neela thotha |
| Marathi | Neela thotha |
| Gujarati | Neela thotha |
| Bengali | Neela thotha |
| Odia | Neela thotha |
| Urdu | Neela thotha |
| Sasyaka Bhasma | The processed article itself. |
| Nayanamrita yogas | An ingredient in classical eye preparations. |
Industrial copper sulphate, sold for agriculture as a fungicide and for the aquarium trade, is chemically the same salt at a very different purity and is what most of the market actually supplies. It is not prepared for internal use and may carry arsenic and other heavy metals as manufacturing impurities.
Copper sulphate, CuSO4 and its hydrates - the blue crystalline mineral chalcanthite. The classical description is of a peacock-blue crystal, which is the name it carries.
A WAY TO REMEMBER IT
Sasyaka is from sasya, corn or crop - the mineral was known as a dressing for seed long before it was a medicine, which is the same use agriculture puts it to today. Chalcanthite is Greek chalkos, copper, and anthos, flower.
Sasyaka is one of the eight maharasa of the Rasa Ratna Samuccaya, named there as an emetic and a lekhana. That is what the tradition records and where.
Constituents. Copper sulphate, CuSO4 and its hydrates - the blue crystalline mineral chalcanthite. The classical description is of a peacock-blue crystal, which is the name it carries.
| 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 copper sulphate. Raw copper sulphate is corrosive and is a documented cause of poisoning: ingestion causes vomiting, gastrointestinal bleeding, and in larger amounts haemolysis, liver injury and kidney failure. It has been used deliberately for self-poisoning in South Asia, which is how most of the clinical literature on it exists. It is a medicine only after shodhana and only within a yoga, and the difference between the two states is not a matter of degree. Anyone pregnant, on medication or managing a diagnosed condition should speak to a doctor or a qualified practitioner first.
| Contraindications | Absolutely not used in the raw, unprocessed state by any route. 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 | Not used in pregnancy. This is a corrosive copper salt with documented systemic toxicity, and no quantity of it has been established as safe in pregnancy. |