Pharmaceutico Analytical Study of Ananda Rasa

Introduction

Ananda rasa comes under Khalveeya rasayana which is a Herbo mineral compound, mentioned in Vaidyachintamani. ¹ Ananda rasa consists of Saindhava, Jatiphala, Pippali, Sodhita Vatsanabha, Sodhita Hingula, Varatika Bhasma, Sodhita Dhattura beeja and Sunti. Dose -1 ratti, anupana- sugar, indicated in udara roga, ama atisara, grahani, kaphja shoola.

Several Herbo mineral or Herbo metallic preparations were found in Ayurvedic classics for Atisara. Most of the preparations consists of Ahiphena, Bhanga, Parada, etc. as ingredients, which are costly and not available easily. Comparatively, Ananda rasa has ingredients  which are easily available, easy to prepare and found effective in Atisara. Hence Ananda rasa was taken for the study.

Pharmaceutical studies deal with collection, authentication, processing of raw drugs and preparation of Ananda rasa. Analysis is important for every product, and is even more significant for a drug as it involves life. Pharmaceutical analysis may be defined as the application of analytical procedures to determine the purity, safety and quality of drugs and chemicals. In the present study, an attempt was made to evaluate Ananda rasa by employing various analytical parameters.²

Objectives of the study

• To carry out the pharmaceutical study of Ananda rasa

• To evaluate physicochemical properties of Ananda rasa

Materials and Methods

Source of raw material collection Hingula and Varatika were purchased according to Grahya lakshana from Pasari Appu Mallya and Son, Mangalore. Dhattura fruit was collected on road side of Ramagondanahalli, Yelahanka, Bangalore.

Vatsanabha, Pippali, Jatiphala were purchased from Amruth kesar depot, Bangalore. Saindhava was purchased from IAIM Healthcare Center, Yelahanka, Bangalore. Ardraka, Sunti, Kullatha were purchased from provisional store, Yelahanka, Bangalore. Raw materials (Table 1) were authenticated from the experts of RSBK and Dravyaguna department, Ramakrishna Ayurvedic Medical College, Bangalore.

Pharmaceutical procedures carried out during the study are as follows:

1. Hingula Sodhana: Bhavana with Ardraka swarasa for seven times³ (Table 2, 3).

2. Vatsanabha Sodhana: Nimajjana in Gomutra for three days.⁴

3. Varatika Shodhana: Swedana in Kulattha kwatha for three hours.⁵

4. Dhatura beeja shodhana - Swedana in Goksheera for three hours.⁶

5. Preparation of churna of Jatiphala, Sunti, Vatsanabha, Dhatura, Pippali.⁷

6. Varatika Bhasma – Shodhita Varatika was subjected to gaja puta. ⁸

Procedure

Shodhita varatika was kept in sarava and was covered with another sarava of same kind. The joints were wrapped in cloth smeared with multani mitti paste and dried. Sarava samputa was subjected to heat in the Muffle furnace for about 800^oC for three hours. For this heating process, temperature was gradually increased to 800^oC in about 270 mins. When the temperature reached 800^oC, the temperature was maintained constantly for about three hours. After this process, the varatika became brittle. This brittle varatika was collected, powdered in a khalwa yantra, then triturated with nimbu swarasa, prepared chakrikas, dried and again subjected to heating process for second time for about 800^oC and the temperature was maintained for 1h. After swanga sheeta, white color varatika bhasma was obtained (Table 2).

Bhasma Pariksha: Bhasma pariksha was carried out after 2nd puta and results are shown below.

Rekha purnatwa - Positive

Mrudutva - Positive

Method of preparation of Ananda rasa: All the above ingredients were taken in a khalwa yantra one by one, triturated till a homogenous mixture was formed. This was then subjected to bhavana by adding water, vati’s of ½ ratti size were prepared and stored in an air tight container (Table 2).

Analytical Study

Analytical tests were carried out in Central Research Facility, Shri B M Kankanwadi Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya, Belgaum. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX) were carried out in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (Table 3, 4, 5 and Figure 1, 2).

Results

The results obtained were categorized into:

• Pharmaceutical results

• Analytical results

The compositional analysis by EDX revealed the presence of elements like Ca, Cl, Na, C, O, S. The concentration of carbon and oxygen was found to be more due to herbal materials. There were no heavy metals detected except mercury. Mercury was due to the presence of Hingula, one of the ingredients in Ananda rasa.

Discussion

Pharmaceutical procedure

This study was carried out for the scientific validation of Ananda rasa. Raw materials were collected according to the Grahya lakshana

Pharmaceutical study

Hingula shodhana was done according to Rasa Tarangini. The yield of shodhita Hingula was 94% and loss was 6%. Loss was less after seven bhavana, because of the addition of starch present in Ardraka (as the quantity of Hingula was less, increase in quantity was not observed). Among various medium for bhavana for shodhana purpose, the Ardraka swarasa was selected because it has deepana, pachana property. Varatika shodhana was done according to Rasa Tarangini. The yield was 96%, with 4% loss observed, which could be due to the impurities of raw Varatika. Varatika marana was done according to Rasa Tarangini, but electrical Muffle furnace was used for puta; yield was 77.08%, with 22.91% loss which may be due to procedure handling. Vatsanabha shodhana was done according to Rasa Tarangini. Among the various media for shodhana, Gomutra was selected because of its Kshareeya guna, as kshara is considered as better choice to remove the impurities from the drug. 72% loss was observed in final yield of Vatsanabha shodhana which was due to the removal of outer layer and dissolution of water soluble as well as alkaline soluble substances in Gomutra for three days. Sodhita Vatsanabha, Pippali, Sunti, Sodhita Dhattura, Jatiphala churna was prepared according to the classical reference of Sharangadhara. A clean cotton cloth was used in order to get maximum fine particles. Loss of Vatsanabha (44.4%), Pippali (38%), Sunti (24%), Dhattura (27.5%), Jatiphala (18%) was observed due to dusting of powder during pounding and also while filtering some part remained as tail (residue). Comparatively more loss was observed in vatsanabha because of more fibrous nature.

Analytical study

The weight variation of Ananda rasa falls within normal limits i.e., 62.5 ± 3.5. This variation in weight may be due to the manual preparation of vatis. Ananda rasa was subjected to hardness test, values were observed as 3.5±0.5 kg. Hardness is due to the compactness of the particles attained by Bhavana with water (acts as binding agent) in preparation of Ananda rasa. In Friability test, the weight of the tablets weighed before and after 100 revolutions showed weight loss of 0.625% indicating that it can withstand abrasion in packing, handling and transporting. Ananda rasa had 5.13% of moisture, probably because it was prepared by triturating with water. The pH of the vati is 8.74. It is alkaline or basic. The pH indicates the site of absorption and basic drugs are best absorbed in more alkaline areas of the distal ileum. Total ash value was 31.64%; high total ash value is due the presence of various inorganic salts and metallic ingredients in the final product. Acid insoluble ash was 5.902% which shows the percentage of insoluble inorganic content of Ananda rasa in the acids. This high value of total ash and acid insoluble ash is indicator for the precise pharmaceutical process involved to justify the identity and quality of the final product. The compositional analysis by EDX revealed the presence of elements like Ca, Cl, Na, C, O, S. The concentration of carbon and oxygen was found more due to herbal materials. There were no heavy metals detected except mercury. Mercury was due to the presence of Hingula, one of the ingredients in Ananda rasa. XRD confirmed the presence of Cinnaber and calcium oxide, due to the presence of Hingula and Varatika bhasma as ingredients in Ananda rasa. On subjecting to heat, Calcium carbonate present in varatika is converted to fine particles of calcium oxide. The possible reason for the presence of calcium oxide in Varatika bhasma may be because of subjecting to heat in Muffle furnace, where the temperature was maintained around 800^oc. It is expected that high temperature results in conversion of CaCO3 present in the Varatika into CaO involving the following reaction-

CaCO3 -------> CaO + CO3

Further work needs to be done to evaluate their elemental effect at tissue level of the Varatika bhasma as XRD confirms the presence of calcium oxide.

Conclusion

Ananda rasa is a Khalveeya rasayana (Herbo mineral formulation) mentioned in Vaidya Chintamani. There is only one reference for Ananda rasa. Analytical results were found within the normal limits.

Conflicts of Interest

Nil