Pharmaceutico-analytical study of Makardhwaj-A classical mercury based ayurvedic rasayoga

Makaradhwaja is a mercury-based formulation, frequently being used by Ayurveda professionals in the management of various diseases. However, quality and safety concerns are being witnessed in the recent past on these traditional formulations, which are letting down reputation of the system. Thus manufacturing of quality formulations, establishing pharmaceutical and analytical profiles become an important task. Makaradhwaja is prepared by Kupipakwa method using processed Swarna (gold), Parada (mercury) and Gandhaka (sulphur) in a proportion of 1:8:16. Preliminary physico-chemical analysis, assay of elements, XRD and XPS were performed for evaluation of analytical profile and chemical characterization. Chemical analysis revealed that Makaradhwaja contains 83.60% of Mercury and 13.55% of Sulphur along with other minor elements. Though, large quantity of gold was used in the preparation, very little (33.35ppm) was found in the finished sample. Makaradhwaja is tri/hexagonal (alpha) form of mercury sulphide and XRD samples of three batches confirmed this form.