Witnessed by: TCM · Ayurveda
Mercury, of the native element (liquid metal) family. The only metal liquid at ordinary temperature — a heavy, mobile, silver-white fluid breaking into rolling beads; native range: found native as droplets and won chiefly from cinnabar (HgS) in volcanic and hydrothermal ore bodies. Globally recognized as shui yin (水銀) in Chinese, parada, rasa, suta in Sanskrit, and mercury, quicksilver in English. The part used is the purified (shodhita) metal. A brilliant silvery liquid, very heavy and mobile, odourless and tasteless, dividing into perfect mirror-bright globules.
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.
MERCURY
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- mercury
- Scientific name
- Mercury (native element, Hg)
- Family
- native element (liquid metal)
Form
- Part used
- the purified (shodhita) metal
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- pungent
Temperature
- TCM
- cold (toxic)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- kills parasites and worms, resolves toxic sores and scabies; used almost only externally on account of its toxicity
- Ayurveda
- yogavahi (a catalyst that potentiates and carries other drugs), rasayana and vajikarana (only when duly purified and incinerated), tridoshahara in prepared form
Cautions
- Contraindications
- pregnancy, children, the weak; internal use of the crude metal is prohibited
- Toxicity
- a cumulative protoplasmic poison — mercury and its vapour cause tremor, salivation, stomatitis, renal and neurological damage; safety in the traditional preparations depends wholly on rigorous processing
- Sourcing status
- legally-restricted
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