PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATION OF ZANGAR: A UNANI INORGANIC DRUG
Dr. Shakeel Ahmed* and Mohammad Idris
ABSTRACT
Unani system of medicine is an age-old, time-tested stream of medicine dating back 5000 years to the ancient Greece. In Unani system of medicine, drugs of herbal, metal/mineral and animal origin are used for cure of diseases. Of these, Zangar (verdigris/copper acetate), an inorganic, i.e., mineralo-metallic compound is used externally in different pharmaceutical dosage forms, such as safoof (powder), marham (ointment) etc. It is not readily available in the market. Hence, an effort was made to pharmaceutically prepare Zangar according to method mentioned in the famous Unani text, namely Khazain-ul-Advia authored by Najm-ul-Ghani. As per Unani pharmacopoeias, it belongs to the category of specialized Unani drugs, i.e., prepared under noayyat-e-tarkeeb. A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was made, and it was prepared according to the SOP. A battery of physico-chemical tests was employed. It has been first attempt to prepare Zangar under SOP.
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