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Gold, Aurum, Jin 金

Jin (TCM)
Gser  གསེར  (Tibetan)
Tila (Unani)
Svara (Ayurveda)

Picture
Ortus Sanitatis, Beck, 1517

Picture
Picture
Native Gold
British Mineralogy
, Sowerby, 1811
Gold coins
Krauterbuch
, Lonitzer, 1578

Picture
The Latrobe Gold Nugget (717 grams)
Photo by Gump Stump

Mineralogical name:
Aurum

Parts used:
  1. Gold Leaf or Powder
  2. 'Potable Gold' (Gold in dissolution)
  3. Ash (Bhasma)
  4. Gold chloride; Aurum muriaticum (prepared with Aqua Regia)

Temperature & Taste:
Neutral. Bitter, Sweet.
Pacifies all Humors and is a tonic to all the Body Tissues

PROPERTIES:
Nature: granular, dendrites, nuggets
Color: golden yellow
Streak: Bright Yellow
Cleavage: none
Fracture: hackly
Lustre: Metallic
Tenacity: very malleable, ductile
Transparency: Opaque
Hardness: 2.5–3

Specific Gravity: 19.3 (from 15.6–19.55 depending on admixture and processing method)
Melting Point: 1300 degrees C.


Uses:
1. Strengthens the Heart, Cheers the Spirits (TCM, West, Ayurveda, Tibetan):
-benefits Memory and Intelligence
-all infirmities of the Vital and Animal Spirits (Qi and Spirit)
-low Spirits, Melancholy; Nervous exhaustion
-Insanity, Mania
-Palpitations
-prevents Angina Pectoris and Heart attack
-traditionally used against Sorcery (by protecting the Heart and Spirit)

2. Calms Wind, Stops Spasms (TCM, West, Ayurveda, Tibetan):
-Epilepsy, Apoplexy
-Migraine
-Fright; Hysteria

3. Benefits Yin and Yang, Nourishes Essence (TCM, West, Ayurveda, Tibetan):
-Consumption, Wasting diseases (Ayurveda)
-benefits Fertility, increases Semen
-prevents Miscarriage (Paracelsus)
-promotes Longevity
-‘Given as a Cordial to strengthen in all diseases’ (Schroeder)
-improves Complexion

4. Strengthens the Kidneys (TCM, West, Ayurveda):
-lower back pain, Sciatica
-chronic Arthritis, Rheumatism
-Diabetes-like disorders

5. Clears Heat and Poison from the Blood (TCM, West, Ayurveda, Tibetan):
-purifies the Blood; used against Poison
-Schroder said ‘it cleanses the Blood by discussing Noxious Humors by Sweat’.
-chronic Skin diseases including Leprosy, Herpes and Psoriasis
-Syphilis, Ulcers
-counters ill effects of Mercury

6. Clears Phlegm, Resolves Masses:
-Fibroid Tumors, Scrofula, Lymphatic swellings, Cancer
-chronic Inflammations, Tumors of the Uterus or Ovaries
-highly regarded by some in Cancer and Cancerous Ulcers

7. Strengthens Spleen, Benefits Digestion:
-promotes appetite and digestion, increases assimilation (Ayurveda, Bhasma)

8. Externally:
-rubbing Gold on a stye removes it
-Hildegard said rubbing Gold on a Tumor or Swelling caused it to resolve
-Gold leaf has been successfully applied to heal chronic Ulcers and Sores


According to the Auralists who specifically used Gold and Gold Salts, its effect are:
    i) vascular and muscular excitant
    ii) Promotes Absorption
    iii) Increase Urine
    iv) Promotes Perspiration
    v) Promotes secretion of Saliva
    vi) Stimulates the Stomach, Promote Appetite
    vii) Promotes Bowel movement
    viii) Promotes Menstruation
    ix) Stimulates Generative Organs
    x) Has a strong action on the Nervous system.
Taken from Gold as a Remedy in Diseases of the Heart, J.C. Burnett, MD. New Delhi, reprinted 1985.

DOSE:
Of the Powder: 50-125mg.
Gold Leaf: 1/30th–1/20th of a grain; Often pills are wrapped in Gold leaf.
Bhasma: 1/10th–1/4 of a grain;

Of the CHLORIDE of GOLD: 0.05 to 0.25 of a grain, often with sugar.
Of the COLLOIDAL SUSPENSION of GOLD: 10 drops (containing 0.1 grain of the metal.)

Main Combinations:
1. Epilepsy, with Cinnabar and Peony root
2. Epilepsy, or for diseases of the Womb, with Red Coral, Amber, Pearl
3. To strengthen the Nerves, with Nutmeg, Mastic, Saffron, Tragacanth, Delphinium, Clove
4. Fever, Influenza, Pneumonia, Plague etc., with prepared Silver, Pearl, Ruby, Cinnabar, Realgar, Aconite root (Ayurveda)
5. Syphilis:
i. Gold (chloride) is taken with Syrup of Sarsaparilla
ii. Gold (chloride) has been combined with Aconite.
6. Scrofula, Gold (chloride) with Gentian, Mezereon bark, Foxglove leaf, Bitter Orange peel. (Memorial Pharmaceutique, 1824)
7. Glandular hardening and Fibroid Tumors, Gold chloride (½ scruple), Extract of Hemlock, Hemlock powder (1 dram each), form pills of 1 grain each. Dose: 1 pill twice daily.
8. Cancerous Ulcers, Gold chloride (1 grain), White Sugar (2 drams). Powder, divide into 12 doses. Take 1 dose twice daily. (Rust)
9. Cervical Cancer: Gold chloride (1 grain), White Sugar (1 drams). Powder, divide into 12 doses. Take 1 dose twice daily. (Sobernheim, 1840)
10. Ointment for hard swellings and fibroid tumors: Gold chloride (2–3 grains), Ointment of Rose (1 oz.). Mix and apply.

Cautions:
None noted.
Avoid overdose of the Salts.

Main Preparations used:
Powder Gold; Leaf Gold; Precipitated Gold, Sugar of Gold, Syrup of Gold, Tincture of Gold, Gold Oxide, Ash (Bhasma); numerous other preparations

1. Divided, Powdered or Reduced Gold:
i. leaf Gold can be triturated with Gum Arabic and Honey, then dissolve the mixture in hot water and filter, the divided Gold remaining on the filter is dried.
ii. In a porcelain mortar, add several leaves of gold leaf and about 20 times the amount of powdered potassium sulphate and grind to a very fine powder, then wash off the salt with hot water and dry the remaining gold powder. (Hager's)
iii. Gold leaf (1 part), Mercury (6 parts). Make an amalgam by triturating in an earthen mortar, then dissolve the Mercury with hot nitric acid, then dry and powder the residue.

2. Precipitated Gold.
A gold chloride solution, which contains some free hydrochloric acid, is mixed with as much ferrosulfate solution as this produces a precipitate. The latter is collected, washed out and dried. It forms a deep brown, lusterless powder, which takes on a metallic sheen under pressure and rubbing.


2. Sugar of Gold:
  Powdered Gold (100mg), Powdered Sugar (10 grams). Mix.

3. Syrup of Gold
  Powdered Gold (1 grams), Sugar Syrup (30 grams)
Taken internally in teaspoonful doses. Also applied to Ulcers of the Throat. (Hager's)

4. Chloruret of Gold, Aurum muriaticum:
i. Gold leaves (1 part), Hydro-chloro-nitric acid (3 parts). Digest in a sand bath moderately hot, then evaporate the solution, very gradually, to dryness. Dose: one tenth of a grain per day. (Anti-syphilitic, daiphoretic)

5. Powder of Chloruret of Gold.
Chloruret of Gold (1 grain), Starch (1 dram). Divide into 15 doses (Niemann)

6. Tincture of Gold; Aurum Potabile:
i. Gold (1 dram), Hydrochloro-nitric acid (1 oz.). Dissolve, add Essential Oil of Rosemary (2 oz.). Set aside until the color of the acid has entirely dissipated by absorption of the oil. Dissolve this in Rectified Spirit (8 oz.). Dose: 10 drops. (Pharmacopoeia Generalis, 1783)

7. Gold Oxide, Aurum Oxydatum, Calx of Gold:
Note these are similar to Bhasma of Ayurveda.
i. By Calcination: Gold (1 part), Mercury (6 parts). Make an amalgam, triturate with twice its weight of sulphur; then calcine until the Mercury and Sulphur have dissipated and the Gold remains as a brown powder. (Pharmacopoeia Wirtembergica, 1798)
ii. By Precipitation: Dissolve Gold in sufficient Hydrochloro-nitric acid. Dilute the solution with 12 parts water. Then add solution of potassium, enough that it remains in slight excess; then wash and dry the precipitate which forms. (Pharmacopoeia Hannoverana, 1819)

History:
Pliny
‘Gold is efficacious as a remedy in many ways, being applied to wounded persons and to infants, to render any malpractices of sorcery comparatively innocuous that may be directed against them. Gold, however, itself is mischievous in its effects if carried over the head; in the case of chickens and lambs more particularly. The proper remedy in such cases is to wash the Gold, and to sprinkle the water upon the objects which it is wished to preserve. Gold, too, is melted with twice its weight of Salt, and three times its weight of Misy; after which it is again melted with two parts of Salt, and one of the stone called ‘Schistos’. Employed in this manner, it withdraws the natural acridity from the substances torrefied with it in the crucible, while at the same time it remains pure and incorrupt; the residue forming an ash, which is preserved in an earthen vessel, and is applied with water for the curse of lichens on the face: the best method of washing it off is with bean-meal. These ashes have the property also of curing Fistulas, and the discharges known as Hemorrhoids: with the addition, too, of powdered Pumice, they are a cure of Putrid Ulcers and Sores, which emit an offensive smell. Gold, boiled in Honey with Melanthium and applied as a liniment to the navel, acts as a gentle purgative upon the bowels. M. Varro assures us that Gold is a cure for Warts’. (Pliny the Elder, 77AD, translated by Bostock and Riley)



Salmon, Seplasium:
'It is Cordial, mundifying, strengthening the Heart, cheers the Spirits, strengthens the Natural Balsam of Blood, and therefore is given successfully in all Diseases, wherein the Heat, Life, Vivacity and strength of both Body and Spirits need repairing; it is Sudorific, cleanses the Blood, discusses the Humors, and resists the Poison of Mercury, and other Mineral fumes'.

'And as its Tincture, given in wine to 10 or 20 drops, does revive those that are at Deaths door; so also it is very good against the Falling-Sickness [Epilepsy], Apoplexy, Palsy, Vertigo, Megrim [Migraine], Lethargy, and other diseases of the Head, and destroys the root and seminaries of all Malignant and poisonous diseases; It resists Putrefaction and is prevalent against the Plague, and all sorts of Pestilential diseases'.

'A plate of fine Gold, held upon the Tongue, is said to Quench Thirst in Fevers'.

'And authors say, that Leaves of Gold, applied to Ulcers, consumes all superfluous flesh without pain or biting; and cauteries made of Gold are said much to exceed those made of steel'.

'A powder of the Amalgama [with Mercury] given according to Art inwardly, and applied outwardly, is effectual against the Elephantiasis, Leprosy, and such like cutaneous diseases'.

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