Rasashastra evam Bhaishajya Kalpana रसशास्त्र एवं भैषज्य कल्पना

Ayurvedic pharmaceutics and mineral medicine · Second Professional (Dwitiya Varsha) · AyUG-RB

Papers

• Paper I — Rasashastra
• Paper II — Bhaishajya Kalpana

Units in this subject

Study notes

How a medicine is actually made. Rasashastra is the mineral and metallic side, Bhaishajya Kalpana the dosage forms. This is the subject where Ayurveda is most distinctive and most criticised, and a student should be able to discuss the heavy-metal question accurately rather than avoid it.

Parada and the samskara

• Parada doshas: naisargika THREE (visha, vahni, mala), yaugika two, aupadhika three, and seven kanchuka.
• Ashtasamskara: Swedana, Mardana, Murchana, Utthapana, Patana, Rodhana, Niyamana, Sandeepana — then Gaganagrasa, Charana, Garbhadruti, Bahyadruti, Jarana, Ranjana, Sarana, Krmana, Vedhana, Bhakshana for the eighteen.
• Parada is never used unprocessed. The samskara exist because it is toxic.

Rasa dravya and bhasma

• Maharasa (8), Uparasa (8), Sadharana rasa (8), Dhatu, Ratna, Upa-ratna, Sudha varga, Sikata varga, Kshara, Lavana, Visha and Upavisha.
• Shodhana then Marana then Amritikarana. Bhasma pariksha: Rekhapurnata, Varitara, Nishchandratva, Apunarbhava, Niruttha.
• The heavy-metal question: bhasma contain metals, and published analyses have found lead, mercury and arsenic in some marketed products. An honest answer states that the traditional position is that shodhana and marana change the form, that this is contested, that regulatory limits exist, and that unverified products have caused documented poisoning. Avoiding the question reads as evasion.

Visha and upavisha

• Visha (the mahavisha): Vatsanabha and the other Aconitum poisons. UPAVISHA: Langali, Karavira, Gunja, Ahiphena, Dhattura, Bhanga, Bhallataka, Jayapala, Arka, Snuhi, Kupilu. The upavisha list is examined as a list, so learn which side each sits on.
• Each has a specified shodhana — and the shodhana IS the difference between a medicine and a poison. Vatsanabha in cow's urine or milk; Bhallataka rubbed with brick powder and boiled in milk; Gunja boiled in milk; Kupilu in cow's milk.

Bhaishajya Kalpana

• Panchavidha Kashaya Kalpana: Swarasa, Kalka, Kwatha, Hima, Phanta — in descending order of potency.
• Sneha Kalpana: taila and ghrita; murchana; the paka stages (ama, mridu, madhya, khara, dagdha) and their tests.
• Sandhana Kalpana: asava (cold, unboiled) and arishta (from a kwatha). Both are self-generated alcohol preparations and improve with age.
• Churna, Vati, Gutika, Avaleha, Guggulu, Lepa, Anjana, Varti.
• Saveerya avadhi — shelf life — and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act provisions for ASU drugs.

How the named yogas are made

• The manual above gives each kalpana. This section says which kalpana a named yoga belongs to, because that is the form the question is asked in: not “what is an avaleha” but “how is Chyavanaprasha made”.
• Avaleha — Chyavanaprasha, Kutajavaleha, Vyaghri Haritaki.
• Churna — Hingvashtaka Churna, Sitopaladi Churna, Talisadi Churna, Trikatu Churna, Triphala Churna.
• Arishta — Ashokarishta, Dashamularishta, Draksharishta, Kutajarishta.
• Asava — Kumaryasava.
• Vati and Gutika — Arogyavardhini Vati, Bilvadi Gutika, Chandraprabha Vati.
• Guggulu Kalpana — Kaishore Guggulu, Panchatikta Ghrita Guggulu, Triphala Guggulu, Yogaraja Guggulu.
• Ghrita — Mahatiktaka Ghrita, Panchatikta Ghrita.
• Kupipakwa Rasayana — Makaradhwaja, Rasa Sindura.
• Parpati — Rasa Parpati.
• Chyavanaprasha: the amalaki is boiled in the kwatha of the other drugs, rubbed through, fried in ghrita; the sugar is brought to paka; the prakshepa powders go in off the fire and the honey last of all, when it is cool, because honey heated is held to be harmful. The Ashtavarga belong to the classical formula and most commercial preparations omit or substitute the group.
• Triphala churna: the classical proportion is haritaki, bibhitaki and amalaki 1:2:4 by Sharangadhara. Equal parts is the commoner modern practice and is not what the text says — this is the part most often got wrong.
• Sitopaladi and Talisadi are built on a descending proportion, 16:8:4:2:1. The proportion, not the drug list, is the examinable part.
• A guggulu kalpana is two preparations in sequence where the formula names a ghrita: Panchatikta Ghrita Guggulu means the ghrita is made first and then used to bind the guggulu.

Rasashala and equipment

• The layout of a rasashala and the requirement that it be built away from disturbance and with specified directions for each activity.
• Yantra: Dola, Damaru, Patana, Valuka, Bhudhara, Kachchhapa, Tiryak patana, Adhah patana.
• Musha (crucibles), Koshthi (furnaces), Puta (the calcination pits) — Maha, Gaja, Varaha, Kukkuta, Kapota, Bhanda puta, in decreasing heat.
• Puta selection determines the bhasma, and the number of puta is stated for each metal.

Maharasa, Uparasa, Sadharana rasa

• Maharasa (8): Abhraka, Vaikranta, Makshika, Vimala, Adrija (shilajatu), Sasyaka, Chapala, Rasaka.
• Uparasa (8): Gandhaka, Gairika, Kasisa, Kankshi, Haratala, Manahshila, Anjana, Kankushtha.
• Sadharana rasa (8): Kampillaka, Gauripashana, Navasadara, Kaparda, Agnijara, Girisindura, Hingula, Mruddarashringa.
• Learn them as lists of eight; the grouping is asked directly.

Avaleha, Vati, Churna, Guggulu kalpana

• Churna: fineness by mesh; shelf life generally one year.
• Vati and Gutika: binding agents, rolling, drying, and the tests for adequate preparation.
• Avaleha: the paka lakshana — a thread test, sinking in water without dispersing.
• Guggulu kalpana: shodhana of guggulu in triphala kwatha or gomutra, then the five named formulations — Yogaraja, Kaishora, Triphala, Gokshuradi, Kanchanara.

Drug and Cosmetics Act as it applies

• Schedule T: Good Manufacturing Practice for ASU drugs.
• Schedule E(1): the list of poisonous substances under ASU, which is the legal counterpart of visha and upavisha.
• Labelling requirements, licensing, and the shelf-life rules.
• Heavy metal limits for export and the testing that demonstrates compliance.

Kupipakwa, Parpati, Pottali and the preparations

• KUPIPAKWA rasayana: prepared in a kachakupi over a valuka yantra with a graduated fire — mridu, madhyama, tivra agni. The product may be gathered from the neck (kanthastha) or the bottom (talastha) of the bottle.
• Rasa sindura is the classic kanthastha kupipakwa; Makaradhwaja is a kupipakwa with swarna added, and is the named yoga a candidate must know.
• PARPATI: kajjali melted and poured into a leaf-lined pit on cow dung and pressed into a flake. Rasa parpati, Panchamrita parpati, Swarna parpati. Used chiefly in grahani.
• POTTALI: the drug tied in a cloth and heated in a bath of sulphur or gold. Hemagarbha pottali is the named one.
• KHALVIYA rasa: prepared only by trituration in a khalva, no fire. Kajjali itself is the simplest khalviya.
• SATVAPATANA is the extraction of the metal essence from an ore; DRUTI is the liquefaction of a metal or gem. Both appear in the Rasashastra syllabus and neither is a bhasma method.

Mana paribhasha — the measures every dose depends on

• The magadha mana, which is what Sharangadhara uses and what every classical matra is written in: 1 ratti (gunja) = 125 mg; 8 ratti = 1 masha = 1 g; 10 masha = 1 karsha (tola) = 10 g; 4 karsha = 1 pala = 40 g.
• For liquids: 1 prasrita = 2 pala = 80 ml; 1 kudava = 2 prasrita = 160 ml; 1 prastha = 4 kudava = 640 ml; 1 adhaka = 4 prastha; 1 drona = 4 adhaka.
• 1 anjali = the two cupped palms of the patient, and is a PATIENT-RELATIVE measure, not a fixed volume. That distinction is examined.
• Kalka : drava ratio in kwatha is 1:4 for kalka and the kwatha is reduced to one quarter, or to one eighth for a strong decoction. Sharangadhara gives both.
• Without mana paribhasha no matra in any classical text can be read, which is why it is the first chapter of Sharangadhara Madhyama Khanda and the first thing to learn.

Pharmacopoeial testing — the API and what it asks for

• The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India (API) is the statutory standard for ASU drugs under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. A monograph gives identity, purity and strength for a single drug, and Part II covers formulations.
• Loss on drying — the moisture a drug carries, determined by heating to constant weight. Above the monograph limit the drug will not keep and will not powder.
• Total ash is everything left after incineration — the drug's own minerals plus any adhering earth. Acid insoluble ash is the part of that which will not dissolve in dilute hydrochloric acid, and it is essentially sand and silica. A normal total ash with a high acid insoluble ash means the drug has been bulked with earth.
• Extractive values — alcohol soluble and water soluble — say how much of the drug is actually extractable, and a low value is the signature of an exhausted drug, one from which the active matter has already been taken.
• TLC, thin layer chromatography, gives a fingerprint: the sample is run beside a marker and the pattern of spots compared. It identifies the drug and shows substitution, which no organoleptic test reliably does.
• Heavy metal limits under the API and the AYUSH notification: lead 10 ppm, arsenic 3 ppm, mercury 1 ppm, cadmium 0.3 ppm for herbal products. Rasaushadhi containing a metal by design are assessed against their own monograph, not against these limits — the distinction is the one that is misreported.
• Microbial limits, aflatoxin limits and pesticide residue limits are part of the same schedule. A drug can pass identity and fail on any of them.
• Schedule T of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules sets Good Manufacturing Practice for ASU drugs; Schedule E1 lists the drugs that must carry a caution and be sold on a prescription — which is where the visha and upavisha dravya appear.

Parada samskara — patana, dhalana and the rest

• The eighteen samskara of parada fall in three groups: the first eight are shodhana and preparatory, the next ten make it fit for use in the body, and the last confer the power to transmute.
• Patana is sublimation or distillation of parada to separate it from a fixed impurity. Urdhwa patana drives it upward, adhah patana downward and tiryak patana sideways, each in its own yantra — urdhwa in a damaru yantra, adhah in a patana yantra.
• Dhalana is pouring the molten material into a prescribed liquid or onto a surface, to fix a change already made or to quench it at the right moment.
• Jarana is the digestion of gandhaka or a metal by parada, so that parada consumes it without increasing in weight. Bahir dhuma and antar dhuma jarana are distinguished by whether the fumes escape.
• Murchana renders parada free of its natural blemishes and gives it its characteristic colour; amritikarana removes whatever toxicity remains after the earlier samskara and is the last step before parada enters a medicine.
• The yantra are the apparatus and each is named for its shape or action: damaru yantra for urdhwa patana, valuka yantra — a sand bath — for kupipakwa, dola yantra for swedana shodhana, khalva yantra for grinding, musha the crucible, and koshthi the furnace.
• A musha is classed by what it is for: vrintaka, gara, vajra, maha and yoga musha among others, and using the wrong one loses the charge.

Where the texts disagree

• The maharasa, uparasa and sadharana rasa lists differ slightly between the Rasa Ratna Samuccaya and the earlier Rasa texts; the RRS lists are the examinable ones.
• Tuttha names both Sasyaka (copper sulphate) and Rasaka (a zinc ore) in different nighantus. The group it is listed in decides which is meant.
• Kharpara is Rasaka, the ore. Yashada is the metal distilled from it. They are not synonyms, though they are traded as though they were.
• Chapala's identity is unsettled: bismuth, antimony and a selenide are all proposed, and they are three different toxicologies.
• Girisindura is a natural mercury mineral; Rasasindura is a prepared mercury-sulphur compound. The names are close and the articles are not.

Commonly confused

• Haratala (arsenic trisulphide), Manahshila (disulphide) and Gauripashana (trioxide) - three arsenic minerals of very different toxicity.
• Hingula (mercuric sulphide) and Girisindura (a mercuric oxide).
• Sasyaka (copper sulphate) and Rasaka (a zinc ore) - both called Tuttha.
• Swarna Makshika and Vimala - both sulphides, separated by lustre and weight.
• Shodhana (purification) and Marana (reduction to bhasma) - two different operations in a fixed order.

Practise it, and prove it