Comparative stagewise mapping of trace elements using ICP-OES in five Ayurvedic Marine Drugs highlights their posologic and clinical implications

Rasashastra, an Ayurvedic pharmaceutical branch, scientifically converts natural resources into palatable therapeutic dosage forms. Ayurvedic Marine Drugs (AMD) are mainly calcium carbonate/ calcite, but in Ayurvedic treatment modality they are uniquely used for several ailments. Moreover, their detailed microchemical compositions have seldom been reported. In this study, five raw materials, conch, oyster shell, cowry, coral, and pearl, their transitions during the manufacturing process, and the final drugs were analyzed for identification and quantitation of minor elements using a validated inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrophotometry method. All the five raw materials contained traces of Al, Ag, B, Ba, Cu, Co, Cr, Fe, Hg, Li, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, S, Sr, Tl, and Zn. Interestingly, B, Co, Cr, Li, Mn, and Ni were absent in the finished products, whereas Pb and Hg exhibited a considerable decrement during the drug formation. The first three components of principal component analysis together explained 72.09% of variance. Raw AMD indicated positive factor scores, whereas their respective purified and incinerated forms exhibited negative scores. Cluster analysis derived a dendrogram typically forming incinerated AMD group but not for the raw forms. Coral with Mg as highest content was a remarkable outlier in both these analyses as compared to Na in others. In discriminant analysis of the presence/absence of elements and periodic table-based classifications, coral and pearl showed higher variation indicating as discriminants when equated with others. Periodic table-based classification was a better model for discrimination. Correlation analysis in both classifications revealed a strong correlation of conch with oyster shells and vice versa, cowry and pearl with oyster shell and a weak correlation of coral with pearl. Coral was a good predictor followed by conch, pearl, oyster shell, and cowry, sequentially, and can be considered a moderately sensitive but highly specific model. Thus, ICP-OES technique is highly precise and accurate for assessing the micro-composition of raw, in-process, and finished products to ensure their transitions, quality, and genuineness. Such characterized traditional medicines should be further investigated in depth for their mechanistic aspects.