REVIEW ON THERAPEUTIC POTENTIAL OF AYURVEDIC MEDICINE SWARNABHASMA (INCINERATED GOLD)

Gold is an important medicinal ingredient known to render rejuvenation and longevity as stated by ancient Ayurvedic literature. Research based on gold bhasma has led to evidence regarding physico chemical nature of the drug, revealing nano-size and unique nature of gold particles in it. A pubmed search was performed to identify all relevant researches based on gold bhasma, and related work on gold nanoparticles. Sanskrit literature regarding Gold was referred to elaborate the drug delivery systems of gold bhasma. The explored and unexplored facts have been highlighted for further researches in this area. There is adequate safety data about cell -friendly nature of gold bhasma as evident by in-vitro experiments. Its safety is also established by toxicity study. The next areas for exploration should be bioavailability and to know the mechanism of action. This review also puts forth unique drug delivery systems of Ayurveda where the accompanying drugs play important role. Keywords: Ayurveda, Swarna, Traditional Indian Medicine, Bhasma, gold nanoparticles, cancer, bioavailability