Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Copper, of the native element family. A soft, ductile red metal, taking a high lustre and greening to a carbonate patina in damp air; native range: found native in the oxidised caps of ore bodies and smelted from its sulfide and carbonate ores; worked in India from the earliest metal age. Globally recognized as tamra, shulva, ravi-loha in Sanskrit, tamba in Hindi, and copper in English. The part used is the metal as thin leaf and sheet (tamra patra), purified and incinerated to bhasma. Salmon-red to rose-red with a bright metallic lustre when fresh, malleable enough to beat into leaf, leaving a distinct metallic taste and smell on the hands.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
COPPER
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- copper
- Scientific name
- Copper (native element, Cu)
- Family
- native element
Form
- Part used
- the metal as thin leaf and sheet (tamra patra), purified and incinerated to bhasma
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- astringent (kashaya) · bitter (tikta) · sweet (madhura)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- heating (ushna)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- lekhana (scrapes and reduces), deepana-pachana (kindles and digests), yakrit-uttejaka (stimulates the liver), medohara (reduces fat), krimighna, kaphapittahara, rasayana in the properly prepared bhasma
Cautions
- Contraindications
- the raw or unpurified metal is never taken internally; pregnancy; ulceration and severe hyperacidity; the weak and the very young
- Toxicity
- the classical texts assign copper eight great faults (ashta-mahadosha) — the improperly prepared metal causes vomiting, purging, giddiness, burning, fainting and wasting. Copper is a cumulative hepatotoxin in excess, and the safety of the bhasma rests entirely on complete shodhana and marana.
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