A REVIEW ON THE MINERALS- SROTOANJANA AND SAUVIRANJANA

Rasashastra is a branch of Ayurveda pharmaceutics, termed as Indian alchemy.It deals with the study of minerals, metals, etc. and its use in therapeutics.Anjana is a mineral and is said to be of five types namely sauviranjana, srotoanjana, neelanjana, pushpanjana and rasanjana.Anjana have different roles like some are useful in treating eye diseases, some used for only beautification and some for both eye diseases and also for enhancing the look of the eyes.Srotoanjana and Sauviranjana are different chemically and have different therapeutic utility.Srotoanjana is cool, soothing, astringent and sweet.It is efficacious in obesity, eye-diseases, hiccups, poison, nausea, excess of phlegm and impurities of the blood.Sauviranjana is said as netrya (beneficial to eyes), rasayana (rejuvenate) and it pacify the tridosha.From therapeutic point of view, lead sulphide may only be used as anjana in eye diseases irrespective of its sanskrit name sauviranjana or nilanjana.It is opined in a treatise of Rasashastra that Sauviranjana is a type of Srotoanjana.