Review of Therapeutic Clays Used in Reference to Unani System of Medicine

Abstract

Nature and health has always remained in consonance with each other. Various natural resources have got therapeutic purpose apart from their use in other industries. Clays from nature have been used frequently for therapeutic purposes from ancient times. The external use for stopping bleeding and their internal use for various ailments have been documented from early Greek civilization and Unani system of Medicine. Survey of literature from index journal, available Unani classical text, and authentic books and websites were carried out about therapeutic clays, their nomenclature, uses and rationale for their use was noted. Dioscorides has mentioned a number of clays in his book Materia Medica. Work of other Unani/Arab scholars AbūRayḥān al-Bīrūnī, Ibn al-Bayṭār, Hunayn Ibn Isḥāq al-ʿIbādī, Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī, Ibn Sīnā, Abul Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbās al-Zahrāwī on clays etc is been shortlisted in this work. Unani system enriched by vast literature extending from Greeks to Indian scholars bridged by the Medieval Arab scholars of medicine have left great legacy in regard to the description, use, and indication of various types of therapeutic clays, which are remedy for various diseases as a haemostatic, detergent, resolvent, astringent, wound healing etc, and also used as a cosmeceuticals and cosmetics. Present review attempted to enumerate the various aspects of different types of clays used in Unani system of medicine for therapeutic purposes.

Keywords: Medicinal Clays; Unani Medicine; Gil; Tīn; Bole; Therapeutic clay