HERBOMINERAL FORMULATION’S SAFETY AND EFFICACY EMPLOYED IN SIDDHA SYSTEM OF MEDICINE: A REVIEW

Abstract

Siddha is an ancient holistic system of medicine that gives importance to physical, mental as well as the spiritual wellbeing of mankind. This system has been developed by Siddhars, ancient supernatural, spiritual saints in the south India, particularly in Tamilnadu. The formulations of Siddha medicine consist of substances from herbal, mineral/metal and animal origins which are processed pharmaceutically to have therapeutic effects. Among three sources Siddhars widely used metals and minerals, owing to their characters like longer shelf life, greater efficacy with smaller dose and the potential therapeutic value compared to herbal formulations alone. Present review focuses on composition, traditional uses and scientific work done on herbomineral formulations of Siddha system of medicine. The information on Siddha herbomineral formulations was acquired from prehistoric Siddha books and by literature searching in electronic databases such as Science Direct, Pub Med, Pub Med Cochrane and Google-Scholar for publications up to August 2018. Thirteen herbomineral formulations have been identified and most frequently used metals in these formulations are Iron, Mercury, Sulphur, Silver, Gold, Zinc and Arsenic. Here in more than 40 references have been cited. The current review provides a background for toxicity and efficacy studies on Siddha mineral preparations, particularly focusing on scientific validation of these formulations in the treatment of various diseases.