# Varatika Bhasma > Varatika Bhasma is a bhasma, a mineral or metal preparation reduced to ash by repeated calcination. Hyperacidity and gastritis (Amlapitta): Antacid activity confirmed through in-vitro studies and clinical observations. ## Names and identification | Language | Name | |----------|------| | English | [Varatika Bhasma](/herb/varatika-bhasma/) | ## Key Phytochemical Constituents - Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) as predominant constituent - Ash content (2.06%) - Organic carbon (1.09%) - Total nitrogen (0.72%) - [Potassium](/glossary/compounds-o-q/#potassium) (3.49%) - Zinc (1.48 ppm) and Iron (113.6 ppm) as trace elements ## How does it work? - Antacid action through calcium carbonate-mediated direct neutralization of excess gastric hydrochloric acid, providing rapid pH buffering in the stomach - Gastroprotective effect through formation of calcium-based protective film on gastric and duodenal mucosa, shielding against acid-pepsin erosion - Krimighna (anti-parasitic) action attributed to alkaline pH environment created in the intestinal tract, hostile to intestinal parasites and worms - Ushna Virya (hot potency) with alkaline effects: hot in nature but creates alkaline milieu in stomach, paradoxically balancing acid secretion and relieving heartburn ## Which traditional uses are supported by research? - Hyperacidity and gastritis (Amlapitta): Antacid activity confirmed through in-vitro studies and clinical observations. Effective acid neutralization validated. - Intestinal worms (Krimi Roga): Anti-parasitic action attributed to alkaline pH creation, supported by traditional empirical evidence - Indigestion and bloating (Ajirna, Adhmana): Digestive improvement through acid-base balance restoration confirmed in clinical practice ## What do recent clinical trials show? *3 further claims previously listed here could not be traced to a published paper and have been removed. An absence here means we could not identify the source, not that no work exists.* ## Recent safety updates - GENERALLY SAFE: Marine shell-based calcium preparation without toxic heavy metals. Proven safety in toxicity testing. - NO SIGNIFICANT SIDE EFFECTS: Well-tolerated at recommended doses. Natural calcium carbonate source. - HYPERCALCEMIA CAUTION: Excessive use may lead to elevated calcium levels. Dose adherence important. - MARINE ALLERGEN CONSIDERATION: Patients with shellfish allergies should use with caution due to marine shell origin. ## What is it made of? ### Mineral/Elemental Profile - **Primary component:** Calcined mineral/metal oxide (after Shodhana and Marana) - **Particle size:** Sub-micron to nanoparticle range - **Note:** Exact composition depends on source material and preparation method **Analytical Methods:** XRD, ICP-OES/ICP-MS, SEM-EDS, Particle size analysis, Namburi phased spot test ## Dosage forms and preparation **Dosage Forms:** Bhasma **Standard Dosage:** 250–500 mg **Bioavailability:** Good; cowrie shell calcium carbonate in natural matrix **Optimal Timing:** With honey or warm water; before meals for Amlapitta **Standardized Extract:** Calcined cowrie shell bhasma **Shelf Life:** Indefinite **Storage:** Airtight container **Marker Compounds:** Calcium carbonate (90%+), Conchiolin, Trace [strontium](/glossary/compounds-q-t/#strontium) **Quality Parameters:** Calcium >35%, standard bhasma tests **Vehicle (Anupana):** Honey, warm water ## Safety, contraindications and cautions No authoritative safety data was found for this entry. No permitted source describes Varatika (Kapardika) Bhasma as a finished preparation in any way that supports a safety statement about it: no monograph, no elemental analysis, no clinical study, no case report naming it and no pharmacopoeial entry was located. SEARCHES, reported so they can be re-run. All were run against the NCBI E-utilities esearch endpoint on 2026-09-11 and each is quoted with the result it actually returned. db=pubmed, term 'Varatika': Count 0. db=pubmed, term 'Kapardika': Count 1, PMID 31000993, 'Comparative pharmacognostical analysis through quantitative micrometry and analytical study on Mridu and Tikshna Apamarga Kshara' (Ayu 2018), which concerns Apamarga Kshara and not this preparation. db=pubmed, term '"Kapardika bhasma"': Count 0, returned with WarningList QuotedPhraseNotFound and QueryTranslation '"kapardika"[All Fields] AND ("bhasma"[All Fields] OR "bhasmas"[All Fields])'. db=pubmed, term '"Varatika bhasma"': Count 222, but PubMed likewise returns WarningList QuotedPhraseNotFound for that phrase and rewrites the query to QueryTranslation '"bhasma"[All Fields] OR "bhasmas"[All Fields]', so the 222 records are the general bhasma literature and not hits on this preparation; no claim is made here about their contents. db=pubmed, term '"Cypraea moneta"': Count 1, PMID 28480388, Togun et al., a study of the RAW cowry shell and its extracted proteins, not of the calcined preparation; it is cited in this record as source v9. db=pmc, term '"Varatika bhasma"': Count 3 (PMC9757503, PMC4147483, PMC3960793). db=pmc, term 'Varatika': Count 4 (the same three plus PMC3336693). db=pmc, term '"Kapardika bhasma"': Count 9 (PMC12447158, PMC12148575, PMC12008519, PMC11802355, PMC11530780, PMC9988554, PMC8185977, PMC7685255, PMC3087364). WHAT THOSE HITS CONTAIN. PMC3960793 (Pal et al.) is a descriptive and pharmacognostic bhasma review; it identifies the source material and gives a partial constituent list, and performs no toxicological assay and no assay for lead, mercury, arsenic or cadmium. PMC4147483 (Bhatt) is a one-page conference abstract of an aspirin-induced gastric-lesion model in rats; it states that the bhasma 'was analyzed and used for experimental study' but reports no analytical, toxicological, biochemical, haematological or adverse-event result of any kind. PMC9757503 is the AYUSH Cancer Conclave 2019 accepted-abstract collection, in which Varatika Bhasma appears only inside a proposed multi-drug treatment protocol with no safety, dose or analytical data. PMC3336693 is a 1982 'Research in progress' note in Ancient Science of Life whose PMC record carries no extractable full text (the article page states 'The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (12.5 KB)' and the HTML page has no body text), so no content could be extracted from it. PMC7685255 (Panigrahi et al.) is the only repeated-dose toxicology study located that contains this ingredient, and it tested it inside a nine-ingredient capsule that also contains purified aconite (Aconitum ferox), so its findings can be attributed to Varatika Bhasma neither as harm nor as reassurance; it was also financially supported by the manufacturer of the test article. The remaining PMC hits (PMC12447158, PMC12148575, PMC12008519, PMC11802355, PMC11530780, PMC9988554, PMC8185977, PMC3087364) were opened and are multi-ingredient clinical case reports, a proprietary-tablet animal study, a systematic review and a mica-bhasma characterisation paper; none reports a single-ingredient finding for this preparation. Targeted searches were also run against the permitted regulatory and consumer-information hosts (who.int, ayush.gov.in, pharmacopoeia.gov.in, ema.europa.eu, fda.gov, nccih.nih.gov, ods.od.nih.gov, mskcc.org, medlineplus.gov) and returned no entry for Varatika Bhasma, Kapardika Bhasma or Cypraea moneta. CONSEQUENCES. No entry-specific adverse-event, interaction, contraindication, pregnancy, lactation or elemental (lead, mercury, arsenic) data exist in the permitted sources. No dose field is carried. The only numeral located in a single-ingredient publication appears in Bhatt's abstract inside a comparison line, '(Sucralfate 1 gm 6 hourly and Varatika Bhasma 250 mg twice daily)', alongside what is a human sucralfate regimen; the abstract never states whose dose either numeral is, states no route and states no per-kilogram basis, so the figure is withheld rather than reproduced. No efficacy, indication or comparator information is carried anywhere in this record. Because insufficientData is true, every statement below is scoped class-level. That includes source v9: Togun et al. studied protein extracted from raw, sun-dried, pulverised Cypraea moneta shell given by intraperitoneal injection to mice, which is the source material of this preparation and not the shodhana-processed, calcined article, so it supports no preparation-specific statement either. - **Pregnancy:** avoid — Avoid. No pregnancy data for Varatika Bhasma were located in any permitted source, and no source cited here tested any reproductive or developmental endpoint. The grading rests on the class-level lead and mercury exposure documented in this record for marketed Ayurvedic preparations (Saper et al.: 40.6% metal prevalence among rasa shastra medicines, median mercury 20 800 microgram/g among products with detectable mercury, all metal-containing products over one or more acceptable-daily-intake standards; Bhalla and Pannu: heavy metals detected in all 42 formulations analysed, only 27.9%, n = 12, declaring any metal on the label; NCCIH: 'A 2015 published survey of people who use Ayurvedic preparations showed that 40 percent had elevated blood levels of lead and some had elevated blood levels of mercury'), together with WHO's statements that 'There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects' and that 'Lead stored in bone may be released into the blood during pregnancy and expose the fetus.' NCCIH additionally states: 'If you're pregnant or nursing, be sure to consult your (or your child's) health care provider as some Ayurvedic products may contain products that could be harmful.' (Saper RB, Phillips RS, Sehgal A, et al. Lead, Mercury, and Arsenic in US- and Indian-Manufactured Ayurvedic Medicines Sold via the Internet. JAMA. 2008;300(8):915-923., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2755247/; Bhalla A, Pannu AK. Are Ayurvedic medications store house of heavy metals? Toxicol Res (Camb). 2022;11(1):179-183., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8882783/; NCCIH. Ayurvedic Medicine: In Depth., https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/ayurvedic-medicine-in-depth; WHO. Lead poisoning and health (fact sheet)., https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health) - **Breastfeeding:** avoid — Avoid. No lactation data for Varatika Bhasma were located in any permitted source. FDA states that 'If a mother has heavy metals in her body, the metals may enter her breast milk and be passed onto the baby during breastfeeding.' The same class-level lead and mercury contamination evidence applies as for pregnancy, and lead and mercury are developmental neurotoxicants, so the grading is avoid rather than caution. (Saper RB, Phillips RS, Sehgal A, et al. Lead, Mercury, and Arsenic in US- and Indian-Manufactured Ayurvedic Medicines Sold via the Internet. JAMA. 2008;300(8):915-923., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2755247/; Bhalla A, Pannu AK. Are Ayurvedic medications store house of heavy metals? Toxicol Res (Camb). 2022;11(1):179-183., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8882783/; FDA warns about heavy metal poisoning associated with certain unapproved ayurvedic drug products., https://www.fda.gov/drugs/fraudulent-products/fda-warns-about-heavy-metal-poisoning-associated-certain-unapproved-ayurvedic-drug-products; WHO. Lead poisoning and health (fact sheet)., https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health) - **Heavy metal content:** Identity, from the one source located that names this preparation: Pal et al. state that 'Varatika is identified as the external shell of sea animal Cypraea moneta Linn.', that 'Cypraea moneta is commonly known as the money cowry', and that 'Chemically it is carbonate of calcium.' They describe the ingredients as 'the raw Varatika, Kulattha kashaya (Horse gram decoction for purification), Kumari svarasa (Aloe-vera juice) for grinding during incineration', the organoleptic properties as 'color is dull white fine powder, odorless, tasteless soluble in dilute HCl', and the physico-chemical analysis as 'Loss on drying (0.6566%). It contains ash (2.06%), organic carbon (1.09%), total nitrogen (0.72%), total potassium (3.49%), total zinc (1.48 ppm), total iron (113.6 ppm).' That constituent list did NOT test for lead, mercury, arsenic or cadmium. It is therefore not evidence that those metals are absent and must not be read as a clean elemental assay. No published elemental assay of Varatika Bhasma for lead, mercury or arsenic was located in any permitted source. This is a shell-derived calcium-carbonate preparation rather than a lead-, mercury- or arsenic-based bhasma, but class-level marketplace findings still apply to any bhasma bought as a finished product. Saper et al. requested 230 Ayurvedic medicines sold via the internet and received and analysed 193: 'The prevalence of metal-containing products was 20.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 15.2%-27.1%).' 'Rasa shastra compared with non-rasa shastra medicines had a greater prevalence of metals (40.6% vs 17.1%; P=.007) and higher median concentrations of lead (11.5 microgram/g vs 7.0 microgram/g; P=.03) and mercury (20 800 microgram/g vs 34.5 microgram/g; P=.04).' Those medians carry the paper's own denominator note, reproduced here because it changes what they mean: 'The median metal concentration presented is for medicines with detectable amounts of the respective metal.' 'All metal-containing products exceeded 1 or more standards for acceptable daily intake of toxic metals.' Their stated limitations are carried with the finding: 'Limitations of our study include potential misclassification of the product's country of manufacture and rasa shastra status'; 'We did not assess batch-to-batch variability in metal concentrations'; and 'Wide variation among published standards for acceptable limits of daily metal ingestion makes it difficult to assess the magnitude of potential toxicity for different products.' Bhalla and Pannu sampled over-the-counter Ayurvedic preparations from licensed shops in Chandigarh in 2017; the denominator is their own: 'Out of 43 Ayurvedic preparations, 42 were analyzed. Heavy metals were detected in all formulations.' Of those 42 analysed formulations, 'The metal contents above the FAO/WHO-mandated limit for zinc, mercury, arsenic, and lead were detected in 35, 29, 6, and 2 formulations, respectively.' Median (range) concentrations in microgram/g were mercury 13.52 (0.00-61 095.99), arsenic 0.00 (0.00-1038.83), lead 1.40 (0.00-57.09) and zinc 84.2200 (26.48-22 519.03). Their negative findings are carried alongside their positive ones: 'Cadmium was not found in any sample.' Only '27.9% (n = 12) Ayurvedic formulations had listed heavy metals on the label', so the absence of a metal declaration on a label is not evidence of the absence of the metal. Their stated limitations are also carried: 'a single-center observation limits the generalizability of the results' and 'Our study did not address the potential sources of increased toxic heavy metal contents.' Separately, and as a class-level consequence of calcination rather than a measurement of Varatika Bhasma, Pal et al. report that 'Bhasmas were analyzed and found to contain PAH (2.32-9.55 ppm) among the preparation tested. The benzo[a] pyrene level also varied, the highest concentration being 9.7 ppm.' FDA states, verbatim, that 'FDA warns consumers that using unapproved ayurvedic products containing harmful levels of heavy metals may cause heavy metal poisoning' and that 'Adults and children can become very sick when heavy metals accumulate in their bodies over time.' (Pal D, Sahu CK, Haldar A. Bhasma: The ancient Indian nanomedicine. J Adv Pharm Technol Res. 2014;5(1):4-12. Descriptive and pharmacognostic review; identity and physico-chemical description only, no assay for lead, mercury, arsenic or cadmium., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3960793/; Saper RB, Phillips RS, Sehgal A, et al. Lead, Mercury, and Arsenic in US- and Indian-Manufactured Ayurvedic Medicines Sold via the Internet. JAMA. 2008;300(8):915-923., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2755247/; Bhalla A, Pannu AK. Are Ayurvedic medications store house of heavy metals? Toxicol Res (Camb). 2022;11(1):179-183., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8882783/; FDA warns about heavy metal poisoning associated with certain unapproved ayurvedic drug products., https://www.fda.gov/drugs/fraudulent-products/fda-warns-about-heavy-metal-poisoning-associated-certain-unapproved-ayurvedic-drug-products) - **Contraindication (contraindicated):** Pregnancy — Avoid. No pregnancy data exist for this preparation. The class-level evidence carried in this record documents lead and mercury exposure from marketed Ayurvedic preparations: Saper et al. found metals in 40.6% of rasa shastra products with median mercury of 20 800 microgram/g among products with detectable mercury, and 'All metal-containing products exceeded 1 or more standards for acceptable daily intake of toxic metals'; Bhalla and Pannu detected heavy metals in all 42 formulations analysed, with only 27.9% (n = 12) declaring any metal on the label; NCCIH reports that 'A 2015 published survey of people who use Ayurvedic preparations showed that 40 percent had elevated blood levels of lead and some had elevated blood levels of mercury.' WHO states that 'There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects' and that 'Lead stored in bone may be released into the blood during pregnancy and expose the fetus.' Lead and mercury are developmental neurotoxicants, so the grading is avoid rather than caution. No reproductive or developmental endpoint was tested in any source cited here. (Saper RB, Phillips RS, Sehgal A, et al. Lead, Mercury, and Arsenic in US- and Indian-Manufactured Ayurvedic Medicines Sold via the Internet. JAMA. 2008;300(8):915-923., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2755247/; Bhalla A, Pannu AK. Are Ayurvedic medications store house of heavy metals? Toxicol Res (Camb). 2022;11(1):179-183., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8882783/; NCCIH. Ayurvedic Medicine: In Depth., https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/ayurvedic-medicine-in-depth; WHO. Lead poisoning and health (fact sheet)., https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health) - **Contraindication (contraindicated):** Breastfeeding — Avoid. No lactation data exist for this preparation. FDA states that 'If a mother has heavy metals in her body, the metals may enter her breast milk and be passed onto the baby during breastfeeding.' The same class-level lead and mercury exposure evidence applies as for pregnancy, and the exposed party is an infant, so the grading is avoid rather than caution. (Bhalla A, Pannu AK. Are Ayurvedic medications store house of heavy metals? Toxicol Res (Camb). 2022;11(1):179-183., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8882783/; FDA warns about heavy metal poisoning associated with certain unapproved ayurvedic drug products., https://www.fda.gov/drugs/fraudulent-products/fda-warns-about-heavy-metal-poisoning-associated-certain-unapproved-ayurvedic-drug-products; WHO. Lead poisoning and health (fact sheet)., https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health) - **Contraindication (contraindicated):** Infants, children and adolescents — Avoid. No paediatric data exist for this preparation. FDA states that 'Adults and children can become very sick when heavy metals accumulate in their bodies over time', and WHO states that 'Young children are particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of lead and can suffer permanent adverse health impacts' and that there is no level of lead exposure known to be without harmful effects. Class-level marketplace contamination is documented in this record and label declaration is unreliable (27.9%, n = 12, of Bhalla and Pannu's formulations declared any metal). (Bhalla A, Pannu AK. Are Ayurvedic medications store house of heavy metals? Toxicol Res (Camb). 2022;11(1):179-183., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8882783/; FDA warns about heavy metal poisoning associated with certain unapproved ayurvedic drug products., https://www.fda.gov/drugs/fraudulent-products/fda-warns-about-heavy-metal-poisoning-associated-certain-unapproved-ayurvedic-drug-products; WHO. Lead poisoning and health (fact sheet)., https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health) - **Contraindication (major):** Existing liver disease, hepatic impairment, or concurrent hepatotoxic drugs — Two independent class-level sources document hepatic injury, neither of them a study of this preparation. FIRST, Panigrahi et al.'s 28-day rat study of the nine-ingredient aconite-containing Bacnil capsule reports 'fatty degenerative changes, cell infiltration and sinusoidal inflammation in the liver' at TED x 10 and 'fatty changes in liver' at TED x 5, that in the recovery group 'fatty changes and sinusoidal inflammation in the liver of rats were observed', and in its Results that 'The changes were reversed in all organs in recovery study except liver after discontinuation of drug'. The paper's own Conclusion contradicts that, stating the liver changes were 'reverted in recovery study after discontinuation of drug'; both statements are carried. The authors state verbatim that the drug 'has the potential to damage the liver at a higher dose level on longer administration', while the triglyceride, VLDL-cholesterol and alkaline phosphatase increases underlying that inference carry no significance marker in Table 4 and are called non-significant by the authors themselves. That study was funded by the manufacturer of the test article, Zoetic Ayurvedic Pvt. Ltd. These are findings for a nine-ingredient aconite-containing capsule and CANNOT be assigned to Varatika Bhasma. SECOND, Togun et al. report 'a dose dependent hepatotoxicity effect in mice' from fibrous protein extracted from the raw Cypraea moneta shell given intraperitoneally, with no appreciable change at 10 mg/kg body weight and hepatocyte vacuolation, degenerative ballooning, distorted sinusoids and bile-canalicular dilatation at higher doses; that is raw source material by the injected route, not the calcined preparation by the oral route, and equally cannot be assigned to Varatika Bhasma. No permitted source states a liver-function monitoring protocol for this preparation, and none is invented here; the hazard is recorded so that it is not lost. (Panigrahi B, Sharma S, Sitapara B, De S, Nariya M. Safety profile of Ayurvedic poly-herbomineral formulation - Bacnil capsule in albino rats. Ayu. 2019;40(3):185-191. Nine-ingredient aconite-containing formulation; not a single-ingredient study of Varatika Bhasma. Financially supported by Zoetic Ayurvedic Pvt. Ltd., the manufacturer of the test article; authors declare no conflicts of interest., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7685255/; Togun RA, Balogun RO, Adeyemi DO, et al. Isolation, characterization and immunochemical studies on fibrous proteins from cowry shell (Cypraea moneta, Linnaeus). Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. 2016;14(1):110-122. Study of RAW, uncalcined cowry shell and its extracted protein fractions, administered intraperitoneally to mice; not a study of Varatika Bhasma and not the oral route., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5411861/) - **Contraindication (major):** Renal impairment or existing kidney disease — Both class-level animal sources in this record report renal histopathology, and neither studied this preparation. Panigrahi et al. report 'mild fatty changes in kidney' at TED x 10 in the 28-day rat study of the nine-ingredient aconite-containing capsule, with no change at TED and with the change reverting in the recovery group; the same study found no significant change in relative kidney weight at any dose level and no significant change in blood urea or creatinine. Togun et al. report 'a dose-dependent renal damage marked by necrosis and fatty accumulations in the glomerulus of the kidney of mice treated with higher doses of CSP (>100 mg/kg body weight)' after intraperitoneal injection of protein extracted from the raw cowry shell. Neither finding can be assigned to Varatika Bhasma, and the second is neither the calcined article nor the oral route. The hazard is recorded rather than dropped; no monitoring protocol is stated by either source and none is invented here. (Panigrahi B, Sharma S, Sitapara B, De S, Nariya M. Safety profile of Ayurvedic poly-herbomineral formulation - Bacnil capsule in albino rats. Ayu. 2019;40(3):185-191. Nine-ingredient aconite-containing formulation; not a single-ingredient study of Varatika Bhasma. Financially supported by Zoetic Ayurvedic Pvt. Ltd., the manufacturer of the test article; authors declare no conflicts of interest., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7685255/; Togun RA, Balogun RO, Adeyemi DO, et al. Isolation, characterization and immunochemical studies on fibrous proteins from cowry shell (Cypraea moneta, Linnaeus). Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. 2016;14(1):110-122. Study of RAW, uncalcined cowry shell and its extracted protein fractions, administered intraperitoneally to mice; not a study of Varatika Bhasma and not the oral route., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5411861/) - **Contraindication (major):** Gastric or duodenal mucosal disease, active gastrointestinal bleeding, or concurrent NSAID use — Panigrahi et al. report 'mild epithelial erosion in the stomach' at TED x 10 and 'epithelial erosion in the stomach' at TED x 5 in the 28-day rat study, reverting in the recovery group, and 'cell infiltration in the ileum' at TED x 10. Again these are formulation findings for a nine-ingredient aconite-containing capsule, funded by the manufacturer of that capsule, and cannot be assigned to Varatika Bhasma, but they are the only gastric and intestinal mucosal observations in the located literature and they are adverse ones. No gastroprotective claim of any kind is made or implied in this record. (Panigrahi B, Sharma S, Sitapara B, De S, Nariya M. Safety profile of Ayurvedic poly-herbomineral formulation - Bacnil capsule in albino rats. Ayu. 2019;40(3):185-191. Nine-ingredient aconite-containing formulation; not a single-ingredient study of Varatika Bhasma. Financially supported by Zoetic Ayurvedic Pvt. Ltd., the manufacturer of the test article; authors declare no conflicts of interest., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7685255/) - **Contraindication (contraindicated):** Animal-derived material: vegan, Jain, vegetarian, shellfish-free or other diets and observances excluding animal or marine-animal material — Disclosure and consent issue. This preparation is the calcined external shell of the marine gastropod Cypraea moneta Linn.; Pal et al. also note that 'Animal derivatives such as horns, shells, feathers, metallic and nonmetallic minerals are normally administered as Bhasma.' Anyone excluding animal or marine-animal material on dietary, religious or ethical grounds should be told the source material before use, and the hazard is carried through to this statement rather than raised and dropped. (Pal D, Sahu CK, Haldar A. Bhasma: The ancient Indian nanomedicine. J Adv Pharm Technol Res. 2014;5(1):4-12. Descriptive and pharmacognostic review; identity and physico-chemical description only, no assay for lead, mercury, arsenic or cadmium., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3960793/) - **Contraindication (major):** Mollusc or shellfish allergy: the raw source material is documented to contain immunogenic protein, and the calcined preparation has never been tested — This entry is upgraded from an unknown to a documented source-material hazard. Togun et al. report that raw powdered Cypraea moneta shell contains 1.91% crude protein by dry weight, that fibrous protein extracted from it in citrate buffer resolves into two species (CSP1 91 kDa, CSP2 33 kDa), and that these 'formed clear precipitin lines on reaction with the corresponding antiserum in Ouchterlony plates, and also formed clear precipitin lines in immunoelecrophoresis experiments', from which they conclude 'that the fibrous proteins were immunogenic'. Their globular (PBS-extracted) fraction, by contrast, 'did not show any evidence of immune activation or toxicity'. That work was done on raw, sun-dried, pulverised shell, not on the shodhana-processed, calcined bhasma, and the authors give no evidence as to whether calcination destroys the proteins; their own recommendation is that future work 'should include methods for removing or deactivating the protein components'. No permitted source reports testing of any marketed batch of Varatika Bhasma for residual mollusc protein, and no allergenicity or hypersensitivity testing of the preparation exists. It can therefore be stated neither that calcination removes mollusc allergen nor that it does not, but the starting material is now known to carry immunogenic protein, so the residual risk for anyone with a known mollusc or shellfish allergy is an open one and is recorded as a hazard rather than as reassurance. (Pal D, Sahu CK, Haldar A. Bhasma: The ancient Indian nanomedicine. J Adv Pharm Technol Res. 2014;5(1):4-12. Descriptive and pharmacognostic review; identity and physico-chemical description only, no assay for lead, mercury, arsenic or cadmium., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3960793/; Togun RA, Balogun RO, Adeyemi DO, et al. Isolation, characterization and immunochemical studies on fibrous proteins from cowry shell (Cypraea moneta, Linnaeus). Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. 2016;14(1):110-122. Study of RAW, uncalcined cowry shell and its extracted protein fractions, administered intraperitoneally to mice; not a study of Varatika Bhasma and not the oral route., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5411861/) - **Contraindication (major):** Any product supplied without a batch-specific heavy-metal certificate of analysis — No elemental assay of Varatika Bhasma for lead, mercury or arsenic exists in the permitted sources, and the class-level marketplace data show contamination that labels do not disclose: Bhalla and Pannu detected heavy metals in all 42 formulations analysed while only 27.9% (n = 12) listed any metal on the label, and Saper et al. found that all metal-containing products exceeded one or more acceptable-daily-intake standards, while noting their own limitation that 'We did not assess batch-to-batch variability in metal concentrations.' FDA warns that 'using unapproved ayurvedic products containing harmful levels of heavy metals may cause heavy metal poisoning.' (Saper RB, Phillips RS, Sehgal A, et al. Lead, Mercury, and Arsenic in US- and Indian-Manufactured Ayurvedic Medicines Sold via the Internet. JAMA. 2008;300(8):915-923., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2755247/; Bhalla A, Pannu AK. Are Ayurvedic medications store house of heavy metals? Toxicol Res (Camb). 2022;11(1):179-183., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8882783/; FDA warns about heavy metal poisoning associated with certain unapproved ayurvedic drug products., https://www.fda.gov/drugs/fraudulent-products/fda-warns-about-heavy-metal-poisoning-associated-certain-unapproved-ayurvedic-drug-products) - **Adverse effect:** Acute single oral dose of a nine-ingredient formulation containing Kapardika (cowrie-shell) Bhasma: no toxicity or mortality observed in rats (single dose, 2000 mg/kg, female rats only, 14-day observation; no deaths and no signs recorded) (Panigrahi B, Sharma S, Sitapara B, De S, Nariya M. Safety profile of Ayurvedic poly-herbomineral formulation - Bacnil capsule in albino rats. Ayu. 2019;40(3):185-191. Nine-ingredient aconite-containing formulation; not a single-ingredient study of Varatika Bhasma. Financially supported by Zoetic Ayurvedic Pvt. Ltd., the manufacturer of the test article; authors declare no conflicts of interest., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7685255/) - **Adverse effect:** Dose-related liver, stomach, heart, kidney and ileal histopathology, organ-weight changes, serum-biochemistry changes and haematology changes in a 28-day repeated-dose rat study of a nine-ingredient formulation containing Kapardika (cowrie-shell) Bhasma; the authors infer a potential for liver damage at higher dose on longer administration (no histopathological findings at TED; liver and stomach findings at 5x TED; findings in five organs at 10x TED; the authors' narrative text additionally asserts a significant uterus-weight increase and significant triglyceride and VLDL-cholesterol decreases at TED, but their own Tables 3 and 4 place no significance marker on any of those three rows and their own next paragraph calls the organ-weight changes non-significant, so those three are reported here as unresolved internal contradictions rather than as findings) (Panigrahi B, Sharma S, Sitapara B, De S, Nariya M. Safety profile of Ayurvedic poly-herbomineral formulation - Bacnil capsule in albino rats. Ayu. 2019;40(3):185-191. Nine-ingredient aconite-containing formulation; not a single-ingredient study of Varatika Bhasma. Financially supported by Zoetic Ayurvedic Pvt. Ltd., the manufacturer of the test article; authors declare no conflicts of interest., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7685255/) - **Adverse effect:** Dose-dependent hepatic, renal, pulmonary and splenic histopathology in mice given fibrous protein extracted from the RAW cowry shell (Cypraea moneta) by intraperitoneal injection; the extracted fibrous protein was also immunogenic in rabbits (single intraperitoneal dose in mice at 10, 100 and 1000 mg/kg body weight, six mice per group, 15-day experimental period; no mortality; no appreciable liver change at 10 mg/kg, damage at higher doses; renal damage described at doses above 100 mg/kg) (Togun RA, Balogun RO, Adeyemi DO, et al. Isolation, characterization and immunochemical studies on fibrous proteins from cowry shell (Cypraea moneta, Linnaeus). Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. 2016;14(1):110-122. Study of RAW, uncalcined cowry shell and its extracted protein fractions, administered intraperitoneally to mice; not a study of Varatika Bhasma and not the oral route., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5411861/) - **Adverse effect:** No safety or analytical result of any kind is reported in the only single-ingredient publication located (not reported) (Bhatt P. OA02.09. Evaluation of varatika bhasma for its ulcer protective effect on albino rats. Ancient Science of Life. 2013;32(Suppl 2):S15. One-page conference abstract; efficacy model only, and it reports no analytical, toxicological, biochemical, haematological or adverse-event result of any kind. Title cited verbatim for citation integrity; its therapeutic content is not carried by this record and implies no indication for this preparation., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4147483/) - **Adverse effect:** Elemental calcium load per dose, hypercalcaemia risk and calcium-carbonate drug-absorption interactions are untested for this preparation (not reported) (Pal D, Sahu CK, Haldar A. Bhasma: The ancient Indian nanomedicine. J Adv Pharm Technol Res. 2014;5(1):4-12. Descriptive and pharmacognostic review; identity and physico-chemical description only, no assay for lead, mercury, arsenic or cadmium., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3960793/; Panigrahi B, Sharma S, Sitapara B, De S, Nariya M. Safety profile of Ayurvedic poly-herbomineral formulation - Bacnil capsule in albino rats. Ayu. 2019;40(3):185-191. Nine-ingredient aconite-containing formulation; not a single-ingredient study of Varatika Bhasma. Financially supported by Zoetic Ayurvedic Pvt. Ltd., the manufacturer of the test article; authors declare no conflicts of interest., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7685255/) Each statement above was checked by four independent reviewers and published only if its source could be confirmed to state it. --- Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/herb/varatika-bhasma/ ## Sources - Amidha Ayurveda Herb Database (700+ herbs, CC-BY-4.0) - Web research (clinical trials, WHO monographs, safety databases) - Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India Published by Age Ayurveda in the Nighantu. Educational reference only, not medical advice. Incorporates material from the Amidha Ayurveda Herb Database under CC BY 4.0.