Standardization of abhraka shodhana - A pharmaceutical study

Abstract

The use of metals and minerals for therapeutic purpose are very common in Ayurvedic system of medicine. Shodhana is the initial step with objective to remove impurities and detoxify the material and so make them suitable for further processing. Nirvapa is very important step of shodhana process for the metal having high melting point in which the material is heated to red hot stage and then quenched into a liquid medium such as cow milk, decoction of triphala, etc. In the present study, shodhana of abhraka (biotite) was done using standard procedure. Raw abhraka was divided into 3 batches and the pharmaceutical study of shodhana process was done. It was found that abhraka attained red hot stage at around 823°C after 55 minutes of heating. Approximately 6 hour is required for seven time nirvapa of abhraka. Solid content and alkalinity of the cow - milk was increased after shodhana process.