Tάmra,

Vern. Tάmά.

Thin plates of copper such as can be pierced by thorns are used in medicine. They are purified by being boiled in cow's urine for three hours. Copper is reduced to powder by smearing its thin leaves with a paste of sulphur and lemon juice, beating them into a mass, and exposing to heat in a covered crucible within a sand-bath for twelve hours. The powder thus produced is rubbed with kάnjika and made into a ball, which is introduced into a tuber of Amorphophallus campanulatus (ola), as in a crucible and roasted. This last process is said to render the copper innocuous and prevent it from causing purging and vomiting when taken internally.

Copper thus prepared is a dark coloured powder, somewhat gritty to the feel. On chemical analysis it is found to consist of sulphide of copper. It is described as an alterative, emetic and purgative, and is used in poisoning, dyspepsia, fever, enlarged liver and spleen, anaeinia, skin diseases, diarrhoea etc. Dose, as an alterative, grains two to four. In poisoning prepared copper is given in doses of about twenty-four grains with sugar or honey to cause vomiting.1

Copper enters into the composition of several medicines for ague, remittent fever, enlarged spleen etc. The following are a few illustrations.

Sitabhanji rasa.2 Take of orpiment, mercury, sulphur and realgar, two, one, half and quarter parts, respectively, rub them together into a thin paste with the juice of Momordica Charantia (kάravella). Apply this paste on copper plates equal in weight to the other ingredients, enclose the plates in a covered crucible, and roast in a sand-bath over a strong fire for twelve hours. When cool ex-tract the copper plates from the crucible and powder them. Dose, four grains with four black peppers enclosed in a betel leaf. This packet should be chewed. It is given in intermittent fever with shivering fits, followed by burning and heat of skin. A preparation very similar to the above in composition is called Pliha pancha-nana rasa, and used in enlarged spleen.

Svachchhanda bhairava rasa.3 Take of prepared copper and aconite equal parts, rub together with the juice of datura leaves and make into one-grain pills. They are given with ginger juice, sugar and rock salt in fevers complicated with cerebral symptoms.

Mahamritunjaya lauha.1 Take of mercury, sulphur, talc, or-piment and realgar, each one part, iron two parts, copper four parts, yavakshara and sarjihdkshara (impure carbonates of potash and soda), borax, black salt, burnt couries, and conch-shells, plumbago-root, assafaetida, root of Picrorrhiza Kurroa (katuki), Amoora rohitaka (rohitaka,) and Ipomoea Turpethum (trivrit); tamarind pulp, colocynth root, root bark of Anogeissus latifolius (dhava), root of Alangium decapetalum (ankota), Achyranthes aspera (apd~ marga), ashes of the spikes of the palm-tree, turmeric and wood of Berberis Asiatica (daruharidra), croton seeds, sulphate of copper, rusot and Oxalis comiculata (amlalonikά), all in equal parts, with the exception of rohitaka bark, which should be two parts. Powder the ingredients, mix, soak the mixture in the fresh juice of ginger and gulancha and add to it thirty-two tolas of honey. Make into six grain pills with honey. One pill is given every morning in enlarged liver, spleen disease, ascites etc.

In enlargements of the abdominal viscera, designated by the term gulma, copper is used in a variety of forms. Thus, prepared copper in doses of two grains rubbed with ginger juice and enclosed in betel leaf may be given, or the following composition may be used.2

Gulma kάlάnana rasa.1 Take of mercury, sulphur, copper, or-piment, borax, and yavakshάra (impure carbonate of potash), each two tolas, tubers of Cyperus rotitndus (mustaka), black pepper, ginger, long pepper, fruit of Pothos officinalis (gajapippuli), chebulic myrobalans, Acorus Calamus (vacha) and Aplotaxis auriculata (kusltiha), each one tola. Powder them all, mix and soak the mixture in the juice of Hedyotis biflora (parparti), Heliophytum Indicum (hastisundi), Achyranthes aspera (apάmarga) and Trichosanthes dioica (patala) respectively and dry. This medicine is given in the form of a powder in doses of eight grains with the decoction of chebulic myrobalans.

Several preparations of copper are recommended for use in asthma and heart disease, as for example, Suryάvarta rasa, Hridayάr nava rasa etc.

Suryάvarta rasa.2 This preparation of copper is recommended for use in asthma by Sarangadhara and other writers of note. It is thus prepared. One part of mercury and one of sulphur are rubbed together with the juice of Aloe Indica for six hours. Two parts of copper leaves are pasted with the above mixture, and roasted within a closed crucible in a sand-bath for twelve hours. When cool the copper leaves are taken out from the crucible and powdered. Dose four grains with the addition of honey and the juice of Adhatoda Vasica (vάsaka).

Hridayάrnava rasa.1 Take of purified mercury and sulphur, each one part, prepared copper two parts, rub them together for twelve hours with the decoction of the three myrobalans, and with the fresh juice of Solanum nigrum (kάkamάchi). Make into pills about four grains each. These pills are administered with a decoction of the fruits of Solanum nigrum and the three myrobalans, prepared with two tolas, in all of the drugs and thirty-two tolas of water, which is boiled down to one-eighth, or four tolas. They are said to be useful in heart disease.