Nanogold-pharmaceutics -: (i) The use of colloidal gold to treat experimentally-induced arthritis in rat models;: (ii) Characterization of the gold in Swarna bhasma, a micro particulate used in traditional Indian medicine

Nanosized gold particles (27 +/- 3 nm) have been proven to be effective in ameliorating the symptoms of mycobacterial-, collagen- and pristane-induced arthritis in rat models. This contrasts with the drug sodium aurothiomalate that was only effective against mycobacterial-induced arthritis but not to the same extent as Au-0. Gold in the traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine, Swama bhasma (gold ash), has been characterized as globular particles of gold with an average size of 56-57 nm.