Mahayogaraj Guggulu

The short answer

What is in it

The official recipe is in the Ayurvedic Formulary of India, Part I, entry 5:6, as Maha Yogaraja Guggulu (2003 printed edition, pages 68-69).[1]

Quantities for one batch, from the 2003 printed edition. The powders, guggulu and bhasmas are pounded together with ghee. Mineral names follow the formulary's appendix. Products on sale may differ, so check the label.[1]

Classical source

The formulary takes the recipe from the Sharngadhara Samhita, Madhyamakhanda, chapter 7, verses 56 to 60. The last verse adds tin, silver, lead, iron, mica, iron dross and rasa sindura, one pala each.[1]

What it is used for

• Joints and nerves: the formulary lists it for vata roga (vata disorders), vatarakta (a gout-like joint disease), apasmara (epilepsy) and shotha (swelling).[1]
• Digestion: gulma (abdominal lumps), udavarta (wind moving upward), grahani, mandagni (weak digestion), aruchi (loss of taste), nabhishula and shula (abdominal pain), udara (enlargement of the abdomen) and arsha (piles).[1]
• Other uses: prameha (urinary disorders), bhagandara (fistula-in-ano), kushtha (skin disease), kshaya (wasting), urograha (tightness of the chest), shvasa and kasa (breathlessness and cough), pandu (anaemia), medovriddhi (obesity), netraroga (eye disease) and mushika visha (rat-bite poisoning).[1]
• Reproductive health: shukradosha (disorders of semen), rajodosha (menstrual disorders) and vandhyatva (infertility). The formulary also says it is used as a rasayana.[1]

What the evidence says

Case reportCase report, United States, 2015. A 64-year-old woman in Wisconsin had a blood lead of 85.8 µg/dL and haemoglobin of 8.3 g/dL after about three months of taking a Mahayogaraj Guggulu (Sri Sri Ayurveda Trust) and a second Ayurvedic medicine bought online. Her Mahayogaraj tablets contained 48,700 mg/kg of lead and 3,830 mg/kg of arsenic. She improved after stopping both and a month of chelation; because she took two products, the lead cannot be pinned on one alone.[4]

In vitroLaboratory test of bioaccessibility, 2010. Researchers simulated stomach and gut digestion of five traditional Indian medicines to see how much of their metal would be released. For the Mahayograj Guggulu sample, the estimated daily amount of absorbable lead was 37 times the most lenient published safety limit.[7]

AnimalStudy in rats, India, 2010. One Baidyanath (Jhansi) batch made in 2004 measured 25.8 µg/g lead, 0.07 µg/g mercury and 5.19 µg/g arsenic. Forty rats were given it or nothing for 120 days, and the authors report no major changes at the human-equivalent dose. Only six rats per group were examined at the end, and one batch says nothing about another.[6]

Safety notes

• The recipe has seven mineral preparations of 48 g each, 336 g in a 696 g batch. The formulary's appendix identifies naga as lead, vanga as tin, raupya as silver, mandura as iron dross and rasa sindura as a mercury (parada) preparation.[2]
• Parada (mercury) is on Schedule E(1), India's list of poisonous substances in Ayurvedic medicines. Medicines made with Schedule E(1) substances must carry the label "Caution: to be taken under medical supervision".[3]
• A 2004 US study found 37,000 µg/g of lead, 22,800 µg/g of mercury and 8,100 µg/g of arsenic in a Baidyanath product sold as Mahayograj Guggulu with silver and Makardhwaj, bought in Boston. That is one historical sample of one variant.[5]
• Contains guggulu, which has its own interaction pages. See Guggulu and thyroid medicines, and Guggulu and blood thinners.

Who makes it

Sold in India by makers including Dhootapapeshwar, Patanjali, Baidyanath. We list names so you can match your bottle to this page. We do not recommend or sell any brand.

Withheld until review

Questions people ask

Related

Sources

1. Ayurvedic Formulary of India, Part I, 2nd revised English edition, 2003. Maha Yogaraja Guggulu, 5:6, printed pages 68-69.
2. Ayurvedic Formulary of India, Part I. Appendix, list of single drugs of mineral origin: Naga (lead), Vanga (tin), Raupya (silver), Mandura (dross iron), Rasa Sindura (parada, mercury), Abhraka (mica).
3. Drugs Rules, 1945, Rule 161(2) and Schedule E(1), list of poisonous substances under the Ayurvedic (including Siddha) and Unani systems. Central Drugs Standard Control Organization compilation, 2022, pp. 184 and 344-345.
4. Meiman J, Thiboldeaux R, Anderson H. Wisconsin case investigation of lead poisoning linked to Ayurvedic medicines, 2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2015;64:883. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
5. Saper RB, Kales SN, Paquin J, et al. Heavy metal content of ayurvedic herbal medicine products. JAMA. 2004;292(23):2868-73. PMID 15598918.
6. Lavekar GS, Ravishankar B, Gaidhani S, Shukla VJ, Ashok BK, Padhi MM. Mahayograj guggulu: Heavy metal estimation and safety studies. Int J Ayurveda Res. 2010;1(3):150-158. PMID 21170206.
7. Jayawardene I, Saper R, Lupoli N, Sehgal A, Wright RO, Amarasiriwardena C. Determination of in vitro bioaccessibility of Pb, As, Cd and Hg in selected traditional Indian medicines. J Anal At Spectrom. 2010;25(8):1275-1282. PMID 21643429.

Updated 4 November 2026