Traditional Siddha Medicine: Panchamuga Chendhuram (PMC) Preparation and Standardization using Sophisticated Analytical Instrument

Siddha system of medicine is a primordial system of medicine existed in the world and practiced in southern part of India. Siddhars are the spiritual scientists; they are well versed in Metallurgy, Geology and Phytochemistry, have used vastly all kinds of herbs, metals, minerals and animal products. Metals and minerals based formulations have good efficacy and potency than Botanicals in treating chronic ailments and they are generally made into preparation such as parpam, chendhuram, chunnam, pathangam, kattu, kalangu etc of which Chendhuram is more potent. But there is no standard operating procedure for the preparation of the above drugs.

The Siddha herbo-mineral formulation, PanchamugaChendhuram (PMC) cited in the ancient Siddha text Pulippani vaithyam-500 is recommended for various skin conditions, undergone physicochemical analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), scanning electron Microscope (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDAX), Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission spectroscopy(ICPOES) analysis to assess the safety and efficacy of this formulation. In this study PMC were assessed for quality control according to the standard guidelines for development of ASU drugs.

Physicochemical analysis shows that pH of PMC is 4.75, Loss on Drying (LOD) of PMC is 0.6. SEM analysis showed that on average the particle size ranges from 50nm- 500nm. Heavy metal and other constituents present in finished drug were identified. The ICPOES interpretation revealed that Hg, Pb, Cd, As are below detectable limit and As is only 0.09 ppm against the normal limits of 3 ppm, were within the WHO guidelines for assessing quality of herbal medicines.

The elemental chemistry of finished drug obtained through this study may be a useful tool in standardization of drug (PMC).