STANDARDIZATION OF SURYA SHEKHARA RAS: A KUPI PAKWA RASAYANA

Demand and acceptance of rasa aushadhis would not increase until unless these mineral and metallic preparations, particularly those which contain heavy metals like Surya Shekhara Ra s are standardized . Surya Shekhara Ras is a t ypical herbo - mineral Kupipakwa rasayana indicated for fever especially in viral fevers. The present work highlights the procedures and te chniques adopted for the physico - chemical analy sis and characteriza tion of three different samples of Surya Shekhara Ras obtained by well defined process in Rasa Shastra text . Pharmaceutically prepared Surya Shekhara Rasa was subjected for physico - chemical analysis, X - ray diffraction (X - RD), Inductive Couple d Plasma with Optical Emission Spectrometry (I.C.P.O.E.S.) , Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy D ispersive X - ray Analysis (EDAX) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FT IR) with a view to standardize the drug through modern techniques. Values of Physico - che mical studies of all three samples we re almost in the same range. HgS compound form wa s detected in X - RD study of 3 samples with Hexagonal crystal structure . I. C . P . O . E . S showed presence of 94 % Hg. FT - IR analysis reveals the presence of simila r organic function al groups in three samples of Surya S hekhara Ras. As final results and quantity of elements in all three samples of Surya S hekhara Ras we re in same range , it reveals the uniformity in quality of prepared medicine and purity of drug. Thus suggests that the adopted method of preparation can be taken as standard .