Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Lead, of the native element (metal) family. A very soft, very heavy, dull grey metal, melting at a low heat and marking paper like a pencil; native range: rare as a native metal; smelted from galena (lead sulfide) and the oxidised lead ores, easily and at low heat — which is why it has been worked since antiquity. Globally recognized as naga, sisaka in Sanskrit, sisa in Hindi, and lead in English. The part used is the metal, purified and incinerated to bhasma. Bluish-grey, bright for a moment where it is cut and dulling at once to a grey film; so soft it can be marked with a nail and so heavy it startles the hand; leaves a grey streak on paper and a sweetish metallic taste.
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.
LEAD
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- lead
- Scientific name
- Lead (native element, Pb)
- Family
- native element (metal)
Form
- Part used
- the metal, purified and incinerated to bhasma
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- bitter (tikta) · sweet (madhura)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- heating (ushna)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- pramehaghna (relieves urinary and metabolic disease), vrishya (aphrodisiac), balya, kaphahara, krimighna, lekhana
Cautions
- Contraindications
- the raw or unpurified metal is never taken internally — the classical texts hold it lethal; pregnancy, lactation, children; any impairment of the kidneys
- Toxicity
- a cumulative poison with no safe threshold. Lead damages the blood, the nerves, the kidneys and the developing brain, and it accumulates in bone for decades; lead-bearing Ayurvedic preparations are a documented cause of adult and childhood plumbism, and heavy-metal poisoning from naga bhasma products is on record. The classical safety claim rests wholly on the completeness of the marana, and the analytical evidence does not support it.
- Sourcing status
- legally-restricted
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