Standardization and bioavailabililty of ayurvedic drug lauha bhasma part-1 physical and chemical evaluation.

Lauha Bhasma, an ayurvedic drug, is widely used in iron deficiency anaemia, this ancient drug is claimed to be better absorbed gastrointestinally, and is also claimed to be devoid of the usual side effects associated with administration of the allopathic iron preparations, Physical and chemical methods of standardization required for any quality preparation, is not found in the ayurvedic and the modern literatures for Lauha Bhasma. Thus an approach has been made to standardize Lauha Bhasma. For the purpose of analysis, samples of all the three commonly available variants of Lauha Bhasma were considered. Qualitative analysis indicates the presence of iron both in the ferric and the ferrous forms, A simple spectrophotometric method has been used for simultaneous determination of ferric ferrous and the total iron content in a single aliquot.