Chemical analysis of vanga bhasma

Abstract

Vanga bhasma is an Ayurvedic formulation used for various diseases. An attempt was made to analyze it chemically which includes XRF, XRD, EDAX and ICP-MS techniques. Vanga Bhasma drug contained mainly tin as tin oxide. The content of tin was found to be 80 percent. XRF analysis revealed that the bhasma contained 17 elements at different levels of concentration. XRD studies exhibited that the major phase composition is cassiterite tin oxide in tetragonal structure. The crystallite size of the compound calculated from Scherrer's formula was 52.94 nm. ICP-MS studies revealed the presence of calcium, arsenic, iron, silicon, phosphorus, aluminium and chloride. A combination of XRF, XRD, EDAX-SEM and ICP-MS was very useful in concluding that vanga bhasma is in cassiterite form of tetragonal structure. It is possible that the practical clinical application of the drug may be due to the different trace level elemental spectra besides tin. Data generated in the present study can be considered for laying down the pharmacopoeial standards for Vanga bhasma.