Witnessed by: TCM · Ayurveda · Unani
Gold, of the native element family. A soft, very heavy, yellow metal — the most malleable of all, beaten into leaf thin enough to pass light; native range: found native in quartz veins and washed into river gravels; won everywhere, and traded everywhere, from the earliest metal age. Globally recognized as 黃金 huang jin, 金箔 jin bo in Chinese, svarna, hema, kanaka in Sanskrit, tila, warq-e-tila in Arabic/Urdu, and gold, gold leaf in English. The part used is the metal as leaf and sheet (svarna patra, warq-e-tila, jin bo), purified and incinerated to bhasma. A deep, unmistakable yellow with a bright metallic lustre that never tarnishes, very heavy in the hand, soft enough to mark with a nail; the leaf is weightless, clings to everything, and shows green by transmitted light.
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.
GOLD
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- gold
- Scientific name
- Gold (native element, Au)
- Family
- native element
Form
- Part used
- the metal as leaf and sheet (svarna patra, warq-e-tila, jin bo), purified and incinerated to bhasma
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- pungent · bitter
- Ayurveda
- sweet (madhura) · bitter (tikta) · astringent (kashaya)
Temperature
- TCM
- neutral (toxic in the classical reckoning)
- Ayurveda
- cooling (sheeta)
- Unani
- temperate
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Heart · Liver
- Unani
- heart · brain
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- settles the Heart and calms the spirit, quiets fright and convulsion, resolves toxicity — used chiefly as a coating that anchors the pill it wraps
- Ayurveda
- rasayana, medhya (sharpens the intellect and memory), ojovardhaka, balya, vrishya, hridya (benefits the heart), vishaghna (antidote to poison), tridoshahara, yogavahi (carries and potentiates what it is given with)
- Unani
- muqawwi-e-qalb (cardiotonic), muqawwi-e-dimagh (brain tonic), mufarreh (exhilarant and dispeller of melancholy), muqawwi-e-badan (general tonic), dafe-sum (antidote)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- the unpurified metal and the incompletely incinerated bhasma are never given; pregnancy and childhood except on close direction
- Toxicity
- metallic gold is unreactive and among the safest of the metals to handle; the classical Chinese texts nonetheless reckon it toxic (you du) and confine it to the surface of a pill. The real hazards are the preparation and the market: svarna bhasma is made with mercury and sulfur, and an incomplete marana leaves those behind, while gold leaf and bhasma are among the most adulterated articles in the trade — brass and gilt alloys sold as gold carry copper, zinc and lead into the dose.
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