Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-15T05:18:00.329Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The composition and origin of massicot, litharge (PbO) and a mixed oxide of lead used as a traditional medicine in the Arabian Gulf

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

Michael A. Worthing  and
Hector H. Sutherland
Michael A. Worthing
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Box 36 Al-Khod 123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Hector H. Sutherland
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Sultan Qaboos University, Box 36 Al-Khod 123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Lead and lead minerals have been used for medical purposes throughout human history. For example, galena was used as an eye salve in pre-Dynastic Egypt and by the ancient Indian civilisations of Mohendro-Daro and Harappa some 3200 to 2800 B.C. (Nriagu, 1983). The use of lead and other heavy metals and their compounds in Ayurveda, the Hindu system of medicine, can be traced back to the first century A.D. when Jain and Buddhist healers began to encourage the use of these substances instead of animal products (Mukherjee, 1992).

Keywords

massicotlithargeleadmedicineArabian Gulf
Type
Short Communications
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 60 , Issue 400 , June 1996 , pp. 509 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abel, E.W. (1975) Lead. In Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry Volume 2, (J.C. Bailor et al.eds.), Pergamon Press, Oxford, 105—46.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1992) The Geological Survey of Iran. Mining Magazine August Issue, 86.Google Scholar
Blanchard, R. (1968) The interpretation of leached outcrops. Nevada Bureau Mines Bulletin 66.Google Scholar
Bose, A., Vashista, K. and O'Loughlin B.J. (1983) Azarcon por empacho - another cause of lead toxicity. Pediatrics, 72, 106–8.Google Scholar
Craddock, P.T., Freestone, I.C., Gurjar, L.K., Middleton, A. and Willies, L. (1989) The production of lead, silver and zinc in early India. In Old World Archaeometallurgy (A. Hauptmann et al. eds.), Selbstverlag des Deutschen Bergbau-Museums Bochum, 51—69.Google Scholar
Cueto, L.M., Baer, R.D. and Gonzalez, E.M. (1989) Three unusual cases of lead poisoning. Amer. J. Gastroenterology, 84, 1460.Google Scholar
Freestone, I.C., Middleton, A.P., Craddock, P.T., Gurjar, L.K. and Hook, D.R. (1991) Role of materials analysis in the reconstruction of early metal extraction technology: zinc and silver-lead smelting at Zawar, Rajasthan. In Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology II (P.B. Vandiver et al. eds.),- Materials Research Society Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 617—26.Google Scholar
Friedlaender, C.G.I. and Choo, K. (1970) Mineralogical observations on slags from Zawar mines, Rajasthan, Indian Mineral., 11, 1 — 10.Google Scholar
Karup-Møller, S. (1975) On the occurrence of native lead, litharge, hydrocerrusite and plattnerite within the llimaussaq alkaline intrusion in South Greenland. Neues Jahrb. Mineral. Mh., 229—41.Google Scholar
McNeil, J.R. and Reinhard, M.C. (1967) Lead poisoning from home remedies. Clinical Paediatrics, 6, 150–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milton, C. (1955) Llama bones with lead-copper mineralization from Bolivia. Amer. Mineral., 40, 770–1.Google Scholar
Mukheijee, G. (1992) Ayurveda, a New Concept. J. Integrative Medicine Publication 1992Calcutta, India.Google Scholar
Murthy, S.R.N. (1983) Minerals used in Indian medicine. J. Geol. Soc. India, 24, 664–7.Google Scholar
Nriagu, J. (1983) Lead and Lead Poisoning in Antiquity. John Wiley and Sons New York. 454 pp.Google Scholar
Peterson, J. (1941) Studies of the preparation and allotropic transformation of lead monoxide. J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 63, 2617–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramage, A. (1970) Sardis: Pactoculus North. Bull. Amer. School Oriental Res., 199, 18–20.Google Scholar
Tylecote, R.F. (1990) The Prehistory of Metallurgy in the British Isles. The Institute of Metals London. 260 PP.Google Scholar
Van Moort, J.C. and Swensson, C.G. (1982) The oxidised Zone of the Broken Hill Lode, N.S.W. In Ore Genesis - The State of the Art (G.C. Amstutz et at.eds.) Springer Verlag.Google Scholar
White, W.B., Dachille, F. and Roy, R. (1961) High- Pressure-High-Temperature Polymorphism of Oxides of Lead. J. Amer. Ceramic Soc., 44, 170–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolf, D.A. (1990) Aetiology of acute lead encephalopathy in Omani infants. J. Tropical Pediatrics, 36, 328–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolf, D.A., Riach, .C.F., Derweesh, A. and Vyas, H. (1990) Lead lines in young infants with acute lead encephalopathy: a reliable diagnostic test. J. Tropical Paediatrics, 36, 90–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar