Special Medicines – Shilajit, Mumiya

Introduction
A great deal of confusion surrounds the medicine that goes by the name ‘Mummy’. Mummy, used in medicine, applies to 2 distinct medicines: Mummified human flesh (traditionally from Egypt), and Mumiya (syn. Shilajit) a mineral-pitch, long used as a tonic in Persia and India.

The word Mummy, as we have it, is derived from the Persian word mumiya, meaning bitumen or mineral pitch. As the use of Mummy arrived in Europe from the Middle East, it is possible, in fact probable, that the medicine Mumiya was replaced, or mis-interpreted as Mummy (ie. mummified flesh).

Nevertheless, from the middle ages, the use of Mummified human flesh became popular in parts of Europe. The demand became so high that reportedly people were killed and embalmed with Myrrh and other medicines to supply the market.

From a practical viewpoint, we will focus on Mumiya, or Shilajit.

What is Shilajit?
The source of this medicine has long been a mystery, even until recent times. In India, it is said to be the ‘sweat of rocks’, gathered from high in the Himalayas. Legend has it the ancients noticed Monkeys eat it and then mate relentlessly for hours or days. And so the legend of the miracle tonic. The classical Ayurvedic text Charaka stated that there is no disease that cannot be healed with Shilajit.

The standard product available today is black, heavy, either dried and brittle with a glossy fracture, or soft and pliable. It has long been noted that the best quality smells like Cow’s urine. Several different colored varieties of it were known. It requires purification, usually by boiling in water or a decoction, straining, then drying in the sun. It is commonly available as capsules of the purified product from such renowned Ayurvedic manufacturers as Dabur.

In modern times, it has been stated to be broken down organic plant matter which is formed under pressure in certain mountainous regions from the Himalayas through to the Caspian mountains. According to this theory, plant matter which has broken down becomes black, rich in humic and fulvic acid, numerous minerals, and smells like urea.

However, on a visit to the He Hua Shi Chengdu Medicine Market (Western China), I found the same black, urine-smelling masses, clearly labelled as ‘Wu Ling Gao’ (Extract of Flying Squirrel feces, used in TCM). It was the same look and smell as what I had obtained in India as Shilajit and Tibet as Brag Zun. Upon enquiry, I was told by the wholesale medicine seller that this medicine is used in Tibetan Medicine and sold mostly to India.

It made sense now. When I have obtained the raw Shilajit in the past, it has had small pellets of what looked like animal feces, embedded deep within the black tar-like mass. The raw Shilajit is prepared any one of a number of ways, the most common being to dissolve it is a decoction of Triphala, strain, and evaporate in the sun. And when I have done this, there remains a proportion of feces-like organic-matter in the strainer, together with other foreign matter like rocks, sticks etc.

I now propose Shilajit to be obtained from caves where Flying Squirrels or similar animals, perhaps even bats, frequent. The Shilajit being the break-down matter of urine, feces and plant matter, rich in minerals, humic and fulvic acid, and containing urea, as well as resins and other organic matter.

Excerpts about Shilajit:

Thirty-five years in the East: adventures, discoveries, experiments … By John Martin Honigberger, 1852:

ASPHALTUM PERSICUM. Mumiai Persica—is a certain specific in fractured bones, deserving the name of Osteocolla. It is a solid, hard, heavy, black, glistening mass, without any particular odor. Only the genuine possesses the peculiar properties, and is but seldom to be met with even in Persia itself, the place of its origin; for the King of Persia is reported to collect the whole product, yearly, and to inclose it in small silver boxes, which are distributed as presents to his family, friends, etc. In all Eastern bazaars may be found, under the name of Persian Mumiai, a compound resembling the genuine in appearance. Professor R. Seligmann, of Vienna, published a Pamphlet, as a Supplement to the Oriental Materia Medica, containing extracts from three rare Persian manuscripts, giving information respecting this point, which information coincides with what I heard in Persia. For the gratification of the reader, I here present an extract from Dr. Seligmann’s pamphlet–Mum in Persian signifies wax. Jai or Ajin is the name of the village in the vicinity of which the Spring of water containing Mumiai or Mumiajin is found. The Mumiai was discovered in the time of Feridun, and in the following manner. On one of King Feridun‘s hunting parties, one of his attendants shot a Gazelle with an arrow, but it escaped in the darkness of the night, passing into a cavity of the rock, where it drank from that Spring and was healed; but, before it was perfectly healed or had left that place, it was accidentally discovered by some of the villagers, secured, and brought to King Feridun, to whom they communicated the particulars. Feridun demanded of his doctors the cause of the cure and ordered an investigation into the matter. They broke a foot of the animal, put a bandage on, and gave it of that same water to drink; when a cure was speedily effected. By the King’s order, the place of the Spring was so enclosed, as to allow the water to run out, while the floating Mumiai is retained on the surface. It is reported that about one hundred drachms annually are collected and delivered to the king’s order. Perhaps, research among the various kinds of asphalt in Europe, might lead to equally wonderful discoveries. See Vol. I. p. 38.
Besides the two cases given in Vol. I. pp. 66,133, wherein I used this article in an unprepared state, I also tried it in conformity with my own System, and have noticed in the foregoing medical part, under different diseases, the effects produced by it.

Asphalt. Pers. Mum. (I.) Fractures. Wounds.
ASPHALTUM SELAJIT. Asphaltum Punjabinum—is an officinal article at Lahore, brought from the hills. The Hakims and Hindoo doctors use it, instead of the Persian Mumiai, in cases occurring from exterior violence.
Asphalt. Punj. (I.)

PLANTS AND DRUGS OF IRAN AND IRAQ, David Hooper, 1937:

Mumiyai, Mumiya (Pers.); Silajit (Hind.); Silajatu, “rock sweat” (Sans.); Khatmolt, Mashana churro (Bal.); Asphaltum Persicum; Asphaltum Punjabinum; Osteocolla (Lat.).

This is one of the most ancient medicines of Iran and northern India, and there has been considerable confusion regarding its origin and nature. There is no doubt that it was early associated with dead or embalmed bodies from Egyptian tombs, which were used in medicine in Europe in the Middle Ages, though often subject to adulteration (Budge, Sir E. A. W., “Mummy: Chapters on Egyptian Funereal Archaeology,” London, 1893).

Another animal source has been found in the Khatmolt of Baluchistan, which contained a large proportion of urea. This confirms the direct evidence of a local medical dictionary that “Mummiai is the inspissated urine of the mountain goat.”

The third source of Mummy is the exudation of a bituminous substance from a rock; the Indian name Silajit or “rock sweat” expresses the phenomenon. The Mumiai obtained as a secretion from the Mummy mountain of Iran has been described by Chardin, Kampfer, Ouseley, Le Brun, and other travelers, and these all point to the fact that the substance is a variety of bitumen, asphalt, or allied hydrocarbon. R. Seligmann of Vienna published a pamphlet containing extracts from rare Persian manuscripts regarding this substance. At one time the King of Persia collected the product from one of the mountains near Behbeban and Darab, enclosed it in silver boxes, and distributed it with great care to those in need of this wonderful medicine.
Samples of Mumiai received lately in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum are those of a variety of asphalt or mineral pitch. Some are black, soft, and sticky, and may be drawn out into long threads, while other samples are black, hard, and brittle.

In the light of modern therapeutics we may anticipate a decline in the reputation of Mumiai of Iran and the Silajit of India, and, like the Hiraceum of the Cape of Good Hope, these once famous remedies will soon be relegated to medicines of a past age.

Travels in various countries of the east: more particularly Persia, By William Ourseley, 1821

Of Mummy Mountain: ‘It is rendered an interesting object only by the extraordinary substance produced in its internal cavities, the Mumiay or mummy, a blackish, bituminous matter which oozes from the rock, and is considered by the Persians as far more precious than gold; for it heals cuts and bruises, as they. affirm, almost immediately; causes fractured bones to unite in a few minutes, and, taken inwardly, is a sovereign remedy for many diseases. I informed some of those who were describing its miraculous efficacy, that an experiment had been lately made at Shiréz on the leg of a fowl, purposely broken and anointed with mummy; when Mr. Sharp the surgeon declared his opinion, that the application of any common bitumen would have been attended with equal success. One of the men coolly replied, that we had probably been deceived; that mummy of an inferior quality was sometimes found in different places, but that this was the true and original source of that inestimable medicine. It does not, indeed, appear that any other was acknowledged as genuine by those Eastern writers whose works have fallen under my inspection, although mummy brought from various parts of the kingdom, has been frequently offered for sale to gentlemen of the Embassy.

According to the Sur al beldan, (a work of the tenth century) there was in the territory of Darabgerd a mountain with an excavation yielding the mummy which was gathered for the King; to this place were attached numerous officers commissioned to guard it; and once every year at a certain time they opened the door of that cavern, in which was a stone, perforated with a small hole ; and in this the mummy was found collected; the produce (of one year) our author describes as equal in size to a pomegranate; and it was sealed in the presence of honest and upright persons, priests and magistrates, and deposited in the Royal Treasury; “and this” adds he, “is the true, unadulterated “ mummy; that sent to the King from every other place “is altogether spurious, and has not in its composition “ any real mummy; in the vicinity of this cavern there is “a village called Ayin (or rather Ayi) the name of which “ has been compounded with mum or “wax” so as to from the word mum-i-ayi or ‘the wax of that village’.

Uses

Note: the reference of ‘Mummy’ as either Shilajit or mummified flesh depends largely upon source. Arab sources invariably refer to Mumiya, or Shilajit. European sources from the Middle Ages will often refer to mummified flesh when ‘Mummy’ is required in prescription. However, as stated, the original inspiration for the use of this medicine seems to have been through mis-translation of Arab sources, meaning that Shilajit can be used even when the original text indicated mummified flesh.

The use of mummified human flesh was the same as for the indications for Mumiya (Shilajit) by Arab physicians: that is, for internal bruising and to promote healing after trauma.

Nevertheless, the following sources relay a number of compounds where ‘Mummy’ is called for.

Bruise Powder of Mesue
        Rhubarb                 1 dram
       Mummy                 2 grains
       Madder                  1½ grains
Mix and make a fine powder.

A reformed, expanded version from the Augustine Dispensatory:
       Sealed Earth
       Dragon’s Blood
       Mummy                 1 oz. ea.
       Spermaceti           ½ oz.
       Rhubarb                3 drams
Mix and make a fine powder.

It is reasonable to assume ‘Mummy’ of Mesue was derived from Mumiya, and therefore refers to Shilajit.
It follows on that later European sources who used ‘Mummy’ for Bruising, Bleeding and Trauma, as in the example provided above, were originally inspired by the translations of the writings of Mesue and other Arab writers. The quote above from PLANTS AND DRUGS OF IRAN AND IRAQ (Hooper, 1937) make reference to the legend of the Gazelle which was mortally wounded but recovered after consuming Mumiya (Shilajit), thus the birth of the Arab use for Bruising and Wounds.

Therefore, these uses, despite being assumed to be mummified flesh even at the time of writing, probably originally referred to the medicinal use of Shilajit.

From General Practice of Physick, Wirtzung, 1654

a. to Stop Bleeding:
       Gum Arabic
       Tragacanth           1 dram
       Red Coral
       Hematite
        Tabasheer
       Camphor
       Armenian (Red) Earth
       Mummy                 ½ dram

b. to stop bleeding Piles, Mummy, Sealed Earth, fine Bole (Red Earth) and Dragon’s Blood are tempered with Egg white and applied.

c. several plasters for Hernias and Wounds.

d. external powders to stop Bleeding of the nose.

e. Compound Plaster for application to broken Varicose veins.

f. The ‘Red Powder of the Chirurgions’, for application to Foul Ulcers:
       Colophony           1 ounce
       Comfrey
       crude Tartar
       Dragon’s Blood
       Mummy                 ½ oz. ea.
Form a powder.

g. a large confection to preserve from the Plague

Conclusion

Shilajit is a valuable medicine which has become more commonly available to the West in the past couple of decades. Its use not only in Ayurveda, but in Tibetan Medicine, Unani, and formerly in the West proves it to be of use in the modern clinic. This has been verified by numerous research papers that demonstrate its rich chemistry and wide range of bioavailable minerals and trace minerals.