The mineral gypsum (Godanti) is used as a medicine in Ayurveda for various
purposes. This paper reports petrological study on Godanti. Petrography is a branch of Geology
concerned with the study of minerals and rocks as thin sections, under petrological microscope.
This geological principle of mineralogy is applied in the present study for gypsum (Godanti), which
provided encouraging results and can be applied for other minerals also. This is also our first step
to integrate Geology and Ayurveda for better understanding of the mineral drugs. The fragments
of gypsum were used for making thin sections, then the fragments of the same sample of gypsum
have been used to purify by keeping in citrus lemon juice for one and half hour. These purified
gypsum fragments were used to make thin sections to understand the changes after the shodhana
(purification). The shodhana (purification) was carried out as per standard Ayurvedic procedures.
It is observed that the effect of lemon juice (citric acid) on gypum (CaSO4) revealed textural
changes. This supports the aim of shodhana mentioned in ancient Ayurvedic texts.
Key words: Petrography, Mineralogical study, Godanti, Purification, CaSO4.2H2O, Gypsum
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