COMPARISON OF THE TOXICOLOGICAL EFFECT OF LEAD-BASED HERBO-MINERAL PREPARATIONS AND THEIR CORRESPONDING METAL NANO-PARTICLE ON ENZYMATIC ACTIVITY AND GROWTH OF BAKER’S YEAST

Metallic toxicity associated with Ayurvedic formulations like herbomineral preparation (Bhasma), especially because of heavy metals such as lead, has always been a matter of debate in the scientific community. Instead of that, ancient Ayurvedic literature reveals that sodhana process used for the preparation of such formulations, either decreases or eliminate the toxic effect of such heavy metals up to a negligible extent. But, the method for their standardization should be well defined. In present work, marketed lead preparation (Bhasma), In-house prepared lead preparation, and their corresponding micro/nano-particle have been evaluated for their physiochemical properties and toxicological impact. For the toxicity studies, instead of animals, two different methods like enzymatic inhibition and change in the growth pattern of yeast cells were explored to find out and establish the toxicity of such preparations. The results of the study reveal that sodhana process significantly effects to the physicochemical character of the metallic preparation and presence of heavy metals like lead effects to the activity of enzymes and growth pattern of the yeast and can successfully be used for the in-vitro toxicity studies.