A scientific review of gold containingherbo-mineral preparation: Makaradhwaja

Abstract

Makaradhwaja is a popular medicine of Ayurveda used for vigor and vitality. It is mentioned in classical texts
of Rasashastra that Makaradhwaja increases longitivity of life and contest aging process. It is used internally
for wide range of disorders like Jwara (fever), Prameha (diabetes mellitus), Agnimandya (loss of appetite) etc.
Makaradhwaja is gold containing mercurial preparation. As it is prepared by using metals like Swarna (gold),
Gandhaka (sulfur) and heavy metal like Parada (mercury) with adopting typical procedure of Kupipakwa
Rasayana. As it is containing heavy metal like mercury, different issues arises regarding its safety and toxicity.
Here an attempt made to review work carried out on Makaradhwaja for its different aspects like literary,
pharmaceutical, analytical experimental and clinical studies. By screening all the relevant classical texts of
Rasashastra and scientific work available it was found that Makaradhwaja not only safe but also therapeutically
effective in disorders like diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis etc.