Be alert next time you pop in an ayurvedic or herbal medicine

Its time to put a check, for all those people who are consuming herbal or ayurvedic medicines, especially the ones that are sold through the vast internet market. In a ground breaking research it has been found out that these medicines contain arsenic, mercury and lead contents, at high levels that are beyond “acceptable standards”.

It was observed that the highest level of lead and mercury were noted in medicines which were prepared by the ancient method of Rasa Shastra. In this method one makes deliberate usage of metals, minerals and gems and they are combined with herbs.

It should be noted that the ayurvedic medicines has been categorized into two types, firstly into only herbal remedies and secondly in the treatments by practice of Rasa Shastra. In the second system, metals like mercury, lead, iron, and zinc are used. In this minerals like mica and other kinds of gems basically pearl are also incorporated.

Though most of these medicines are manufactured in India and the United States. It was found that these medicines contained mercury and lead, 100-10,000, times higher than the safe acceptable limit. The study also appeared in the “Journal of the American Medical Association”.

The research was conducted by a team of doctors, led by Dr. Robert Saper at Massachusetts, at the Boston University School of Medicine. In this, almost 193 medical products were bought and studied. They were manufactured by 37 different manufactures of India and the United States, almost there were 25 websites dedicated in selling 673 kinds of ayurvedic medicines.

The research was conducted, by using a latest technique known as Fluorescent spectroscopy. In this, the atoms are excited to produce a radiation pattern that is identifiable. The analysis proved that the occurrence of these metal containing products was 20.7 % over the 21.7%, in the products that were manufactured in the United States. However, the products that were manufactured in India, contained 19.5%.

It has to be noted, that the medicines that are produced by the method of Rasa Shastra, has higher % of metals, approx. 40.6% while, the other medicines that are manufactured, by the non-Rasa Shastra has, 17.1% of metals.

The study further said that, in most of the metal containing products exceeded, in one or more standards, of daily in take of metals than the acceptable ratio.