Chemical Compositions of Metals in Bhasmas and Tibetan Zuotai Are a Major Determinant of Their Therapeutic Effects and Toxicity

Table 3

Examples of evaluation of toxicity in metal-containing traditional medicines.

Traditional Medicine	Experimental model	End points	Metal toxicity	Ref
Cytotoxicity
HgS, HgCl2, MeHg, As^3+, As^5+	Cell cultures	Cytotoxciity	HgS < < HgCl2 < MeHg	[92]
		MTT assay	As4S4< < As^3+< As^5+
Acute and subacute toxicity
Lauha Bhasma	Acute 14-d study in rats	Mortality	No acute mortality up to 100 TD	[93]
Arogyavardhini vati	28-d study in rats	Neurotoxicity	Arogyavardhini < HgCl2	[59]
		Liver and kidney toxicity, GSH, MDA	Arogyavardhini vati < HgCl2
Energic-31 capsule	28-d study in rats	Learning and memory function	Energic-31 < < HgCl2, Pb, Cd, As	[94]
		Brain MDA and GSH
		Brain metal accumulation
Calcury tablet	28-d study in rats		Calcury < < HgCl2, Pb, Cd, As
Cinnabar (HgS)	14-d study in rats	Neurotoxicity, Na+/K+ ATPase	Cinnabar (1 g/kg) << MeHg (2 mg/kg)	[95]
		Hg accumulation
Sub-chronic and chronic toxicity
Tamra (copper) bhasma	45-d study in rats	Serology and histopathology	Shodhita Tamra < Ashodhita Tamra	[29]
Trivanga Bhasma	90-d study in mice	Serology and histopathology	No overt injury at 1, 5, 10 TD	[96]
Zuotai (gTso thal)	135-d study in mice	No abnormality in serology and morphology		[97]
		Hg accumulation increased but reversible
Studies in young and old animals
Cinnabar	Weanling nice (7 weeks)	Developmental and neuro-toxicity	Cinnabar << HgCl2 or MeHg	[98]
Zuotai (gTso thal)	Weanling and old mice (7-d)	Old mice is more susceptible to Hg toxicity; and transporter alterations	Zuotai << HgCl2, MeHg	[99]