Susruta Samhita - Mandhata Global

CHAPTER XIII.
Now we shall discourse on the medical treatment
of Diabetes (IVIadhu-IVIeha). I.
Metrical Text :—The intelligent physician
should adopt the following course of treatment in the
case of a Madhu-Meha-patient abandoned as incurable
by other physicians. 2.
^ilajatu, itsorigin and properties :—
A kind of gelatinous substance is secreted from the sides
of the mountains when they have become heated by the
rays of the sun in the months of Jyaishtha and Ashadha.
This substance is what is known as the Sildjatu and it
cures all distempers of the body.
The presence of the six kinds of metal, such as tin,
lead, copper, silver, gold and black-iron, in their essen-
tial form in the substance (Silajatu), may be
detected by their respective smell and hence it is
known to the people by the name of Shad-Yoni
(lit.—having six different origins). The taste of
this shellac-coloured substance has the same taste
(Rasa) and potency (Virya) as the metal to whose
essence it owes its origin. It should be understood that
as tin, lead and iron, etc., are progressively more and
more efficacious, so the different varieties of Silajatu, ori-
ginated from the essence of tin, lead, iron, etc., are pro-
gressively more efficacious in their application.
All kinds of Sildjatu have a bitter and pungent
taste with an astringent after-taste (Anu-rasa), are
laxative, pungent in their digestionary reaction, heat-
making in their potency and possessed of absorbing and
purifying (Chhedana) properties. Of these what looks