Ayurvedic Bhasmas: overview on nanomaterialistic aspects, applications, and perspectives.

In this paper, we present an overview of Ayurvedic Bhasmas as nanomedicine of herbo-metallic and mineral origin with particular attention to their structural aspects. We find, the Bhasmas as nanomedicines may offer a huge potential for designing new drugs employing the concept of nanotechnology. Thus, the standardization of fabrication process of these formulations is a crucial issue to be addressed. The structure and effectiveness of the Bhasmas as drugs depend largely on their processing history. Bhasmas are generally safe drugs for human beings in spite of the presence of seemingly toxic elements and compounds as indicated by recent studies using modern analytical techniques. Nevertheless, more systematic nanomaterialistic investigations on Bhasmas are recommended for gaining the complete and reliable composition-processing-structure-effectiveness picture of these drugs.