Synthesis of Black and Red Mercury Sulfide Nano-Powder by Traditional Indian Method for Biomedical Application
- Orissa Engineering College, Bhubaneswar (India)
- Tapaswini Ayurvedic clinic and Research center, Balasore (India)
- Gopobandhu Ayurvedic Medical College, Puri (India)
- Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, IIT, Kharagpur (India)
The use of metals and minerals in the traditional Indian system of medicine known as aired is very common and is practiced since seventh century B.C. Metals were reduced to calcined powder form for medicinal purpose. For detoxification, a further step of purification of the metals and minerals with different vegetable extracts was practiced. The people of East India were using mercury and its sulfide as medicine. Gradually this secret was leaked to Arabic physicians who used mercury in skin ointment. Subsequently Italian Physicians adopted Arabic prescriptions of mercurial ointments for skin diseases. In the olden days, metals and minerals were impregnated with decoction and juice of vegetables and animal products like milk and fat for purification. These were then reduced to fine particles by milling with a pestle and mortar. It was known by then that the fineness of the powder had a significant influence on the color, texture, and medicinal properties as is cited by Charak. Nagarjun studied in detail the processing of metals and minerals, particularly mercury and the influence of the processing parameters on the medicinal values. Mercury is unique in many aspects. Indian alchemy developed a wide variety a chemical processes for the ostensible transmutation of metals and preparation of elixir of life, in which mercury occupied a prime position .The present investigation attempts to use the traditional methods as prescribed in the ancient texts to prepare mercury sulfide in both red and black form for medicinal use. XRD, SEM and HRTEM investigations of the sulfides obtained shows that the ancient Indians were able to produce nano-sized powders. Possibly this may be taken as the earliest application of the production and use of nano powder. The study proves that even in ancient time the knowledge of nano particle synthesis was prevalent and used to enhance effectiveness of medicines. Further mercury in the free form is not acceptable in medicines. The ancient physicians could get rid of free mercury by milling and proper choice of the ratio of ingredients as is shown in the investigation by X-ray diffraction studies. In the traditional method for synthesis of mercury sulfide, mercury and pure sulfur were taken and milled in a mortar and pastel. During milling process, the white mercury and yellow sulfur yielded to a gray black colored sulfide. Synthesis of red sulfide of mercury required additional steps of heating and subsequent milling. For therapeutically application, the sulfide thus obtained needed detoxification, which was done using organic extracts. In the present investigation, the same method was followed to synthesize the sapphires and the product was characterized using modern methods like XRD, SEM and HRTEM. With increase in milling time the fineness of the powder increases, which increases the efficacy of the medicine, and free mercury, which is not desirable for medicinal application is found to decrease. The powder obtained at the end of 48 hours of milling is found to be of a size finer than l0nm.
- OSTI ID:
- 21251609
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1063, Issue 1; Conference: IWMNMM-2008: International workshop on mesoscopic, nanoscopic and macroscopic materials, Bhubaneswar (India), 2-4 Jan 2008; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3027189; (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
DETOXIFICATION
DRUGS
MEDICINE
MERCURY
MERCURY SULFIDES
MILK
MILLING
NANOSTRUCTURES
OINTMENTS
PARTICLES
POWDERS
PURIFICATION
SAPPHIRE
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
SKIN
SKIN DISEASES
SULFUR
TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
VEGETABLES
X-RAY DIFFRACTION