Formulation, Standardization and Comparative Evaluation of Ancient Nanomedicine Varatika Bhasma

Bhasmas are unique Ayurvedic metallic/mineral preparations with herbal juices, widely recommended to treat variety ofchronic ailments. Varatika bhasma is a traditional Ayurvedic medicinal preparation, used for protection against ulcers.Varatika is external shell of sea animal Cypreamonetalinn. Chemically varatika is identified as carbonate of calcium. In thepresent research an attempt has been made to carry out a comparative standardization of formulated varatika bhasma (VB1)prepared as per standard classical methods and marketed Varatika bhasma(VB2). These formulations where evaluated forphysical properties, chemical characterization using sophisticated instrumentation techniques such as particle size, AAS,SEM, XRD. Physico-chemical standards where determined for both the samples.The X-ray Diffraction analysis of bothformulations exhibited crystalline nature and nano-sized particles. In SEM study of VB2 shows well-defined fibre likestructures while VB1 shows relatively compact microcrystalline aggregates with loss of grain boundaries