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Traditional Ayurvedic medicines manufactured in the United States and India and sold via the Internet may contain unacceptable levels of lead, mercury or arsenic, researchers warned.Ayurvedic medicines are used by most of India's 1.1 billion people and worldwide by people from South Asia and other regions. "However, since 1978 more than 80 cases of lead poisoning associated with Ayurvedic medicine use have been reported worldwide," Dr. Robert B. Saper, from Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues note in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
There are two major types of Ayurvedic medicines: herbal-only and rasa shastra, which is an ancient practice of deliberately combining herbs with metals (e.g., mercury, lead, iron, zinc), minerals (e.g., mica) and gems (e.g., pearl). Rasa shastra experts claim that these medicines are safe and therapeutic when properly prepared and administered.