select ad.sno,ad.journal,ad.title,ad.author_names,ad.abstract,ad.abstractlink,j.j_name,vi.* from articles_data ad left join journals j on j.journal=ad.journal left join vol_issues vi on vi.issue_id_en=ad.issue_id where ad.sno_en='83841' and ad.lang_id='5' and j.lang_id='5' and vi.lang_id='5'
ISSN: 2169-0138
Hareendran Nair J, Shan Sasidharan*
ZingiVir-H, a herbo-mineral Ayurvedic medicine targets for managing Viral fevers, Bronchitis and Acute Respiratory tract infections. It is formulated using five potent herbs and two purified heavy metals (Mercuric sulphide-HgS and Arsenic trisulphide-As2S3). The toxicity associated with metallic constituents was removed by subjecting to various detoxifying processes as described in the century-old classical literatures of Ayurveda. However, the objection raised against metal-derived drugs of Ayurveda is the lack of empirical evidence for its claimed non-toxicity after the detoxification process. Considering the widespread misconception, we have projected this study to assess the cellular toxicity of ZingiVir-H, and its two-heavy metal ingredients (raw and at various stages of detoxification steps) in the L6 rat myoblast cell line based on MTT assay and ROS production. In MTT assay a substantial reduction was reflected in the cellular toxicity for purified HgS and As2S3 when compared to their raw forms. Moreover, ZingiVir-H has also recorded non-toxicity especially in low concentrations. Alternatively, purified HgS and As2S3 at 20 μg/mL also recorded a significant reduction in ROS production when compared to that of raw HgS and As2S3. Finally, ZingiVir-H and the drug without its metal constituents recorded only 4.5 ± 0.33% and 1.1 ± 0.23% of ROS. These results established that the detoxification of HgS and As2S3 leads to a significant reduction of toxicity as well as the ROS production. Further, the quantitative analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) evidently revealed that the percentage of arsenic, mercury and sulphur was significantly reduced after the detoxification/purification of HgS and As2S3. In light of our evaluation, we hope this research paper will attract a wide attention to confirm the toxicity threshold of herbomineral drugs and purified heavy metals as per Ayurvedic principles through cytotoxicity assessment.