The Medicinal Mercury and Modern Engineering- An Analysis of Rasa Shastra to Find its Relevance in Modern Chemical Engineering and Technology

Mercury, according to modern science, is highly toxic. It is incredible to find that this element and its compounds have been used to cure several deadly diseases, in the past. There is a separate branch of ancient Indian medicine that deals with Hg-based preparations. To make this ancient science of Mercury (Rasa/ Parad in Sanskrit) relevant to the modern world, one has to find how engineering aspects could be employed to carry out the purification and processing of Mercury. Why Engineering and How Engineering!, have been answered in this article.