In this personal narrative, Vaidya Balendu Prakash tells the story of how he grew up in a north Indian family lineage specialising in rasashastra, a clinical specialty of Ayurveda that deals with the complex processing of mercury and metals converting toxic materi-als into therapeutic forms, largely known as bhasmas. As a college student, Prakash was confronted with his father’s medical knowledge through a personal illness and accepted the challenge of continuing the family lineage. His training in both Western science and Ayurveda, his experiences and experiments with different ways of knowing about Ayurveda—through his father and through ayurvedic institutionalised learning—led him to document his research based on observation, combining ‘traditional’ knowledge and ‘modern’ research methodology in a unique way. In this contribution to ‘Field Notes’, he shares his insight into developing the standards for the processing of mercury and metal-based formulations, with the aim of ascertaining reproducibility. He has also developed ayurvedic treatment protocols for certain forms of cancer and chronic diseases.
* This article developed from an initial interview between Dr Prakash and Barbara Gerke in Dharamsala in October 2012, which was then continued by e-mail and completed during a visit to his clinic in Dehradun. To preserve the voice of the author, we have left the translitera-tion in the form that he used.
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Keywords
Bhasmas – ayurvedic mercury processing – rasashastra (alchemy) – oral history – ayurvedic family tradition
My Earliest Memories of Mercury Processing
My first memory of mercury goes back to watching my late father, Vaidya Chandra Prakash (1919–84) (see Fig. 1), ignite smoke, producing a fire around a football-like cloth ball containing ground and dried pieces of cinnabar. These he prepared from a mercury sulphide ore called hingul (see Fig. 2), which were ground with lemon juice (see Fig. 3), then sundried and cut into pieces (see Fig. 4). These pieces of cinnabar were wrapped in old cotton cloths (see Fig. 5). Later, he kept that ball over a large iron plate and covered it with an oval-shaped clay pot, making space for air to ventilate around it by put-ting four small wooden sticks of finger-sized width beneath the clay pot that was stationed on a big iron plate (see Fig. 6). This apparatus is called Kanduk Yantra (Kanduk means a ball-like structure). Gradually, clouds of smoke arose from the little space beneath the periphery of the covered clay pot with a smell of burnt cloths and sulphur that he could tolerate. My father used to touch the top of the clay pot to ensure that the fire was picking up inside the ball. This process was always done under a covered roof in case of unexpected rain. Similarly, the process was always carried out around sunset, because the dip-ping night temperature worked as a natural cooling agent on the outer surface of the earthen pot. By the next morning, everything had cooled. There were minute particles of mercury and silver-coloured dust around and on the inner wall of the clay pot as well as on the underlying iron plate. Then, the earthen pot was removed. It had a coating of evaporated mercury dust (see Fig. 7). At the bottom, there were the ashes of burnt old cloths. My father would then collect the pieces of the cloths that had not been burnt and would start rub-bing the walls of the earthen pot and iron tray with them. It was very interest-ing for me to see that these tiny particles were merging together, moving very fast and turning into a shiny liquid form which, I was told, was called mercury (see Fig. 8).
Approximately 700 grams of mercury were extracted from this one kilo-gramme of mercury sulphide ore. In classical rasashastra texts, the Kanduk Yantra is used for the distillation of mercury, leaving behind non-evaporable impurities in the dust. The left-over dust was further rubbed and a few drops of mercury were still collected after a day or two. The entire process was always
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figure � The author’s late father, Vaidya Chandra Prakash (1919–1984)
Figure � A piece of mercury sulphide ore called cinnabar or hingul
figure 3 Grinding of hingul in fresh lemon juice
Figure 4 Sundried pieces of cinnabar or hingul
FIGURE 5 A cotton cloth ball filled with dried hingul
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FIGURE 6 A Kanduk Yantra, an apparatus to extract mercury from cinnabar
FIGURE 7 Collecting liquid mercury from the Kanduk Yantra
FIGURE 8 Distilled liquid mercury FIGURE 9 Filtering mercury through a cotton cloth
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conducted without using any masks or gloves, and all my siblings as well as family guests were exposed to this process. Neither my mother, Shashi Mukhi, who helped in the manufacturing of medicines, nor any of us ever felt uneasy about this; rather we were quite happy and excited to see our faces reflected in the shining mercury.
Later, this form of mercury was filtered through a new, white cotton cloth (see Fig. 9). It was amazing to see numerous drops of mercury coming out in the form of a mercury rain flowing into another pot. After weighing, this mer-cury was subjected to further processing. It was mostly ground with certain herb juices and washed frequently. This was a daily work process at our house in Meerut, my birth town (located 70 kilometres north-east of Delhi), and filled the early hours of each day. Finally, the processed mercury was put into a hand-operated mortar to which thin pieces of gold were added (see Fig. 10). After adding fresh lemon juice, the gold and mercury were triturated with a pestle for hours, continuing for several days, until the entire gold had melted into the mercury. It was then further washed and weighed. At this juncture, processed sulphur was added to this amalgam and ground further in its dry form (see Fig. 11). It was a very slow and steady grinding process. No fan was used in order not to waste any of this material as it was turning into a fine, black paste. This substance is called kajjali in ayurvedic text books. The kajjali thus made was again mixed with other substances of mineral and plant origins and triturated further in a few herbal juices and various other decoctions. Then, at a certain point, the mixture was taken out, and my father formed small, round biscuit-shaped cakes with his bare hands. These were placed on a glass plate to avoid any reaction. Once dried under the sun (see Fig. 12), these round-shaped cakes were sealed in earthen pots using clay and old cloths as sealing agents (see Fig. 13). These earthen pots were further dried in the hot sun. Finally, they were placed in a fire using dried cow dung as fuel (see Figs. 14 and 15). Today we use microprocessor heating systems for this process (see Fig. 16). The tem-perature would rise to a peak, gradually decline, and then cool off automati-cally (see Fig. 17). Once cooled, the earthen pots were opened very carefully, and the greyish-brown, charcoaled cakes became visible (see Fig. 18). The process is repeated between 14 to 100 times depending on the nature of the bhasma. The final product is a tasteless, smokeless, and odourless ash. This was used in my father’s clinical practice. All of us in the family grew up eating this powder, which showed amazing effects within days of treating many viral conditions as well as typhoid fever.
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FIGURE �� Small cakes of various metals drying in the sun
FIGURE �3 Sealed clay pot with mercury cakes inside
FIGURE �5 The smoking dung fire, heating the clay pot
FIGURE �4 Placing the earthen pot into a dung fire
FIGURE �0 Adding liquid mercury to gold inside a mortar
FIGURE �� Grinding processed sulphur into the mercury mixture to make kajjali
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FIGURE �7 Temperature chart of the microprocessor heating system
FIGURE �8 Greyish-brown, charcoaled cakes are removed from the pot after cooling
FIGURE �6 Electric microprocessor heating systems
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A Life-Changing Event
Making mercurial preparations was a routine in my family; all of us were used to living with these ongoing activities of ayurvedic practice. We were impressed and had great respect for our father’s work. However, none of his children ever thought of continuing his legacy. We were studying different subjects. Two of my sisters studied arts, one sister studied botany, and they later completed doctorates in their respective fields. My elder brother opted for a Master’s in statistics followed by computer programming. My younger brother wanted to become a charted accountant and was heading towards his graduation in com-merce. Among the six of us, I was rather aimless, but pursued my graduation in science with botany, zoology, and chemistry as my main subjects. However, an incidental episode in mid-1976 focused my attention upon the ongoing family tradition for the first time.
I had entered college and was quite excited to be going there as it was my first exposure to co-educational college life. Like other boys, I was very assidu-ous in attending the classes. Alas, I suffered a setback in the form of a very pain-ful blister on the left side of my abdominal wall. I had to drop classes and was rushed to see my potential brother-in-law, who was pursuing an MD in modern medicine at a medical college in Meerut. He looked at the blister and immedi-ately diagnosed herpes zoster, a viral disease affecting the nervous system. He prescribed tendril (a pain-killer) and a lacto calamine lotion for local applica-tion. He also explained that the disease would spread further but would not cross the left part of my body and would take its own time to heal completely. I well remember those painful nights, consuming eight to twelve tendril a day and not being able to wear any shirt on my extremely sensitive skin. It was nearly two weeks into my illness when, one day, my mother asked my father, ‘Please, look into his case. He is suffering a lot and has lost two kilograms of his weight in the last two weeks. He can’t sleep and eat. Maybe he will die this way.’ At this juncture, my father called me to his chamber, which was basically the main entrance to the house; I am sure that he had seen me every day with all my suffering. However, that day, he had a different look at my disease and diagnosed visarp roga (a classical ayurvedic diagnosis that means ‘snake-like disease’). This was indeed correct, since the rash with blisters was scattered all over my left abdominal wall and towards my back and looked similar to a snake lying on the left side of my waist and abdominal wall. He then asked me to open one of his wooden shelves and take out a small silver-coloured box, which was covered in dust. I cleaned the box and opened it. Inside was a black-coloured substance that looked like shoe-polish. He asked me to apply this substance all over the affected area without ever touching my eyes and
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lips, and then to wash my hands thoroughly. I followed his advice. It was noon and I well remember that after a few hours I fell into a deep sleep until the next morning. To my great relief, I felt so well that I applied the paste again. I could wear a shirt and rushed to college to join my new friends. It was an amazing recovery.
After completing the full day of classes, I reached home with mixed feelings of pleasure, excitement, and anger. I met my father and said happily, ‘Bauji [that is what we used to call him], that paste was wonderful, and I am almost normal.’ It was a great relief to me after two weeks of suffering. Then I asked him, ‘Why did you not give me that treatment before?’ There was anger in my expression, but I will never forget his response, which took me by surprise at the time. He replied with a serious voice,
Listen, I am your father as well as a vaidya [a term used for an ayurvedic physician]. A vaidya should never be an anagat [someone who invites anyone for treatment]. I did all my duties as a father, but you only came yesterday as a patient to me on the referral of your mother. So it’s your call, not mine.
I was speechless, but that episode had a great impact on my personality and professional life, such that to this day I feel shy about distributing my visiting cards and putting my name on a board.
My second suggestion was also blown away by him. I had told him that there was no known cure for herpes zoster at that time. Eagerly I said, ‘Let us popu-larise and sell the treatment and become millionaires!’ He replied, ‘I have lived up to my age, I am very happy and satisfied with my life. Do not put your gun on my shoulder!’ He was quite blunt. ‘It’s up to you to manufacture this medi-cine and make a million or trillion. If you feel so great, then why do you not take this as a science and develop it as your own?’ With that, he posed a big challenge for me. I thought for a while and asked him about the formula of the paste he used on me. And this was the turning-point in my life, which sowed the seed of my becoming a vaidya.
The formula was too simple. It consisted of the ash of dried Neem leaves (Azadirachta indica) that had fallen off the tree and the ash of the shed skin of a cobra snake, which was later ground with an equal amount of gunpow-der (sulphur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate) in cow’s ghee. However, a deep thought-process was going on in my mind. How had the correlation between the diagnosis of visarp roga and that paste been developed? There must have been lengthy efforts involved in developing these concepts, linking the cause to the formula to cure that disease. Definitely, I thought, there must be an
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underlying ocean of wisdom. Other success stories of my father’s patients also helped me to further motivate myself, and so finally, after the completion of my basic science graduation, it was to be my destiny that I joined an Ayurveda col-lege. From the early winter of 1978, side by side, I began working actively in the preparation of all my father’s medicines with great enthusiasm and pleasure.
My Father’s Guru and His Lineage
I remember Guru Maharaj-ji (d. 1997), a true yogi and master of Ayurveda as well as a specialist in mercury and metallic preparations (see Fig. 19). My father was an adoring pupil of this revered Guru-ji, who had been introduced to him by his great-grandfather. Although my father had received a basic education and obtained the degree of ‘Ayurveda Bhishak’ from the Sanatan Dharma Ayurveda College, Lahore (now in Pakistan), he learnt and practised Ayurveda under the guidance of his guru.
Our entire family had great respect for Maharaj-ji, who used to stay in nearby villages in the district of Meerut. He never stayed in one place for more than four months. He always used to sleep on the floor, wearing only one piece of cloth and eating once a day.
His meal included sugar-free cow’s milk and ripe bananas. Sometimes we accompanied our father to see Guru-ji, and a few times he visited our home. It was always a great day and for us like a pilgrimage. The entire house was
FIGURE �9 Guru Maharaj-ji (d. 1997)
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washed and cleaned. Many times, he performed a yagya ritual at our home, which always included a fire-offering called hawan. Most of the time, Maharaj-ji was quiet. He always made symbolic or short communications. However, his words had great meaning and were quite predictive of the future. His personal-ity had a great impact on me, and I now always feel his presence around me. Maharaj-ji left his body in the year 1997. I always feel very blessed that I have been chosen to carry forward his legacy in the field of Ayurveda.
We do not know much about the background of Maharaj-ji, except the fact that he used to visit a shelter that was built by my father’s great-grandfather for the comfort of wandering sadhus; he himself had become a sadhu at his late age. My father had met Maharaj-ji once together with his great-grandfather when he was around six or seven years old. Later, due to some family quarrel, my father left his parents’ home at the age of 13 or 14. My father could never remember exactly how he met Maharaj-ji for the second time. He only remem-bered that after leaving home, he was roaming directionless and hungry and must have developed a high fever. One day, when he opened his eyes, he was in the lap of Maharaj-ji who had placed a cold, wet cloth on his forehead to bring down the fever. Later, my father followed him like a shadow and carried out all his learning and practice of Ayurveda under his guidance. In our family, Guru-ji was the final authority in our lives, though he hardly put forward any decision.
Ways of Learning Mercury Processing
Learning at HomeInitially, I learnt mercury processing through watching and participating in the ongoing work at my father’s house rather than through texts. Later, I read many books about ayurvedic metal preparations (rasashastra), but these were quite different from our techniques. In 1945, Maharaj-ji dictated a book on the science of metals to my father, which was entitled Dhatu Vigyan. This hand-written book is still with me (see Fig. 20). It describes the presence and impact of each metal on the function of various body organs. I have never seen such descriptive and detailed information on metals in any other book on rasashastra. My father also used to write his activities and experiences into a diary on a daily basis.
The knowledge of mercury preparations at our house was always an open secret. Since I was more inclined to practise it, I developed the necessary skills by doing them. That was the only way to get experience. My late mother, Shashi Mukhi (1929–2010) (see Fig. 21), used to assist my father constantly in the
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FIGURE �0 The author holding the hand- written book on metal preparations by his late father
FIGURE �� The author’s late mother, Shashi Mukhi (1929–2010). This photo was taken three months before her death
preparation of mercury and metals, in addition to her daily household work and caring for six children. My mother came from Bihar, in eastern India. She was the only daughter of Laxmi Narayan (Laxmi Babu), who was called ‘Bihari Gandhi’ by Mahatma Gandhi himself and was among the frontliners of the India Independence Movement. My mother was a very simple, Khadi1-clad, duty-bound, hard-working, and religious lady, who always had great respect for my father’s work and deep regard for Guru Maharaj-ji. In fact, in 1948, she survived a nearly fatal attack of smallpox after consuming a mercury prepa-ration by Guru Maharaj-ji. However, there was hardly any outsider who was interested in learning those practices during my father’s life, which ended in 1984 when he passed away in Meerut.
Formal Ayurvedic EducationI was never interested in pursuing a formal education in Ayurveda. My main interest always was to make mercury and metal preparations with a desire to produce good medicines for my father. However, my father was very keen that
1 Khadi means ‘handspun’ and refers to the hand-woven clothes advocated by Mahatma Gandhi in resistance to British factory-made clothes.
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I should receive formal training in Ayurveda. As I understand, it was merely a legal cover. I hardly give any value to my formal education at the institutes I attended. In 1978, I first joined Dhanwantry Ayurvedic College in Mundka, which was located on the outskirts of Delhi. Although the Delhi administra-tion recognised this college at the time, it was a place to sell degrees, and devoid of practical and basic amenities. I passed my first year and came home to help my father make medicines. After a year and a half, the principal of the college, who had shifted to Mast Nath Ayurvedic College in Asthal Bohr near Rohtak, in Haryana, visited our house and convinced my father and myself that I should pursue further education at that college. Quite reluctantly, I joined and finally gained my BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) degree in 1984. During all these years I hardly attended classes, and the last two years of my education I did not attend a single class; rather I stayed at home working with mercury and metals. Surprisingly, I passed all my theoretical and practical exams.
I do not think the ayurvedic colleges played much of a role in the formation of my personality nor in the development of my professional life. Yes, it was good fun to meet friends, and I enjoyed the place because I love nature and my college was near a man-made lake in a park on the outskirts of Rohtak. My fam-ily tradition definitely provided the greater learning and a more exciting expe-rience to study Ayurveda. The only subject that I recall from my institutional learning was studying human anatomy during my second year. That helped me to know the basics. I also remember the lectures on physiology taught by my principal, Dr R. B. Singhal, who held both BAMS and MBBS degrees. Apart from him, I do not recollect any of my teachers.
Graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree nonetheless definitely helped me understand the chemical process and the development of mercury prepa-rations. It was quite helpful since I was also exposed to laboratory equipment and their importance. However, at the two ayurvedic colleges I hardly saw any applied medical practice at the graduate or post-graduate levels.
Views on Toxicity
Learning chemistry, however, did not affect how I dealt with mercury. At home, we never had any fear of mercury being poisonous. It was always considered good fortune if one could see one’s full face reflected in processed mercury. All of us family members grew up with mercury, its fumes, and processing meth-ods. I hardly remember taking any precautions during those days or thinking about the potential ill-effects of mercury toxicity.
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Neither Guru-ji nor my parents suffered from any signs of mercury toxicity. My father had developed type II diabetes, which was prevalent in his family. He also had essential hypertension. As he hardly took any regular medicines to control his blood pressure and diabetes, he developed diabetic nephropathy and died after six months of bi-weekly dialysis. Guru Maharaj-ji had a long life and passed away in 1997 after suffering with pulmonary tuberculosis for two months. My mother attained the age of 81 without any major illness until her death in 2010.
Future Outlook of the Family Tradition and Mercury Preparations
My entire family is now deeply involved in the continuation of our family tradi-tion of preparing mercury and metal-based formulations and their systematic development, and has taken on board the benefits of technological innova-tions. My eldest daughter, Megha Prakash, has trained as a science writer to support the on-going work with her writing skills; my second daughter, Vaidya Shikha Prakash, is an ayurvedic physician and continues the family tradition through her clinical practice; my third daughter, Versha Prakash, is pursuing a PhD in biosciences in London and wants to correlate science with traditional medical practice; and my son, Devendu Prakash, is well trained in the prepara-tion of bhasmas and works in our clinic. My wife, Gopa Indu, has supervised the manufacturing of our medicines since 1996.
We have developed certain standardised operating procedures with a few technological innovations to standardise the distillation, grinding, and heat-ing processes of these formulas. Repeated distillation of mercury is one of the important steps in the processing of mercury. However, for a long time I was unable to perform it in the absence of any practical experience as my father did not practise this. One day, I was inspired by the shivalingam, which is widely worshipped in Indian Shiva temples. Seeing how water is continuously poured on the shivalingam, a device emerged in my mind. I devised and built this shivalingam-shaped mercury distillation plant (see Fig. 22). In this device, I made copper mercury amalgam, distilling the mercury seven times with cop-per and seven times with different herbs that are poisonous in nature. Through this method, I lost less than ten grams out of one kilogram of mercury, while the traditional method did not give me more than ten grams of mercury out of one kilo after the second round of processing it with copper.
Grinding is also an integral part of manufacturing these formulas, and great emphasis has been given to the process of grinding in Ayurveda; it is known as mardan sanskar. There is a saying that has been passed on among practi-
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tioners: mardanam guna vardhnam, which means ‘grinding will enhance the properties’. We observed that when the grinding was carried out by my father and myself, these formulas had dramatic effects on the treatment of certain conditions, while the same material when ground by employed labour did not have the desired therapeutic effect. People around us attributed this phenom-enon to what they thought was a supernatural healing power that lay in the hands of my father and me. However, I was certain that the difference in efficacy of these bhasmas was merely due to the quality of grinding rather than a so-called ‘healing touch’. The question was how to prove this. Finally, we installed a particle size-analyser to control the size of particles at our manufacturing site to ensure the same size of particles from batch to batch (see Fig. 23). I used my way of grinding as a standard, which had to be followed by all the assistants. This method of controlling the grinding process brought a much greater con-sistency to further batches of the same formula.
Heating is another major step in the processing of metallic preparations and is called put-pak sanskar. Traditionally, this process is undertaken using dried dung cakes from cows and buffaloes or different types of wood and coal. There was again the problem of achieving a certain level of consistency in the
FIGURE �� A shivalingam-shaped mercury distillation plant devised and built by the author
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process in the absence of better quality materials that would allow a stable and controlled heat. To combat this problem, we installed a heat sensor in every type of furnace we used during the heating and cooling processes. The data thus collected were used to develop a computer-controlled and programmed muffle furnace (see Fig. 16). There is now hardly any batch-to-batch variation with regard to applied heat with the metallic preparations. We have docu-mented each step of the mercury formulas we make, from the procurement of raw materials to the therapeutic stage.
Besides my family, there are a few others who are well versed in this par-ticular science at various levels and who prepare bhasmas commercially. For example, Dabur, Baidyanath, Zandu, Unjha, Emami, and Dhootpapeshwar are the major commercial houses dealing with the manufacturing and sales of mercury and metal-based formulas. Moreover, Gujarat Ayurvedic University in Jamnagar, Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, the National Institute of Ayurveda in Jaipur, and a few others are also involved in the education and research of bhasmas. Despite the wide-spread discussion about mercury toxic-ity in Asian medicines and the global UN ban of mercury for environmental protection reasons, I think that the practice of processing mercury for bhasmas will not only survive, but will be widely accepted in the coming decades since it can give many answers to unresolved health problems.
FIGURE �3 A computerised particle size analyser is used to control the size of particles at the author’s manufacturing site to ensure the same size of particles for each batch
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Ayurveda is deeply rooted in India, and many people here have immense faith in the system. There are numerous stories about the miraculous effects of mercury and metal preparations in the treatment of fatal diseases. We cannot imagine ayurvedic clinics without high-quality bhasmas, which can only be prepared with the amalgamation of mercury. We are the largest democracy in the world and will demonstrate our version of medical knowledge and practice with the necessary facts. I am sure that our government will adhere to our demands and will support the continuation of bhasmas in ayurvedic practice.
I have patented only one of my manufacturing processes, which is used to manufacture a bhasma for the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukaemia.2 That patent was registered through the National Research Development Corporation, Government of India. However, on a personal level I am not mak-ing any efforts to proceed with any patent for my other processing methods and products. Rather than patenting, I am more interested in discovering the biochemistry and pharmacology of these formulations. There is a great future ahead that will require a few innovative minds with substantial resources. Unfortunately, India is not ready for such innovations due to many logistical and prevailing structures within the existing scientific system and scientific community.
I feel that our predecessors did a good job. While they knew the toxicity of mercury and heavy metals well, they were successful in developing a method-ology to convert these toxic materials into usable therapeutic forms. I have seen and demonstrated their safety and clinical efficacy through treating patients suffering from acute leukaemia and some other types of cancer, as well as mul-tiple sclerosis, chronic pancreatitis, migraine, rhinitis, sinusitis, piles and fis-tula, and many other chronic inflammatory and immunological disorders.3 I have also documented the long-term survival of patients suffering from acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APML) after their treatment with bhasmas in a pilot study, which was carried out under the Department of AYUSH and sponsored by the Central Council of Research in Ayurveda and Siddha (CCRAS), under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Government of India.4
Well-processed mercury preparations are basically life-saving. People should have a pragmatic approach towards them. Considering Western approaches to
2 A Pharmaceutical Ayurvedic Preparation: US patent: 6,939,567; European Patent: 1 210097 B1; Indian Patent: # 191 708.
3 See, for example, Prakash, Madhusudan, and Nitin 2010; Prakash and Mukherjee 2010; Prakash, Parikh, and Pal 2010; Prakash 2011, 2013.
4 Prakash 2005. A pdf of this pilot study is available online: http://www.padaav.com/content/Monograph.pdf. Last accessed 19 July 2013. See also Prakash, Parikh, and Pal 2010; Prakash 2011.
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mercury, it is easy to oppose and criticise these formulas. In India, mercury, which is known as rasa, remains the most prominent substance of rasashastra, and deserves adequate scientific research.
Acknowledgments
I am thankful to my daughters Megha Prakash and Shikha Prakash for their contribution in structuring and editing this manuscript. I would also like to thank Ms Rupali Sharma for assisting me in editing and typing the article.
Photo credits: Photos by the author (Vaidya Balendu Prakash): Figs. 3, 8, 9, 10, 12, 17, 22. Photos used with permission: Figs. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21 (Thomas K. Shor); Figs. 13 and 23 (Barbara Gerke).
Bibliography
Prakash, V. B. 2013, ‘Importance of Metallic Micronutrients in Ayurveda’, Heritage Amruth, 9 (1): 11–15.
———. 2011, ‘Treatment of Relapsed Undifferentiated Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML-M0) with Ayurvedic Therapy’, International Journal of Ayurveda Research, 2 (1): 56–9.
———. 2005, Effect of Metal-Based Ayurvedic Formulations in the Patients of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (A Pilot Study), Central Council of Research in Ayurveda and Siddha, Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
——— and A. Mukherjee 2010, ‘Hepato-protective Effect of an Ayurvedic Formulation Prak-20 in CCl4 Induced Toxicity in Rats: Results of Three Studies’, International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research, 2 (1): 23–7.
———, P. M. Parikh and S. K. Pal 2010, ‘Herbo-mineral Ayurvedic Treatment in a High-risk Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Patient with Second Relapse: 12 years Follow-up’, Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, 1 (3): 215–18.
———, S. Madhusudan and C. Nitin 2010, ‘Acute and Sub-acute Toxicity Study of Ayurvedic Formulation (AYFs) used for Migraine Treatment’, International Journal of Toxicological and Pharmacological Research, 2 (2): 53–8.
