ARSENIC AND MERCURY MINERALS IN ORIENTAL MEDICINE : IN VITRO TEST AND REACTION PATH MODELING OF SOME COMMON INORGANIC PHARMACEUTICS IN THE HUMAN BODY

Oriental medicine utilizes plants, animal materials and minerals. Mineral medicines are single or mixtures of more than one mineral species or rock/fossil which are used to treat disease. Use of these medicines were first described in the Sinnongbonchogyung (H.K. Do, AD 220) and Dongeuibogam (J. Hea, 1613) and Bonchogangmok (S.J. Lee, 1596) describe several hundred examples. Mineral medicine have been used for over 4,000 years in Northeast Asia. We performed laboratory and computer modeling of reaction processes inside the human body in order to examine the reaction paths and species formed. Enforced extraction tests were performed with artificial gastric fluid (pH=1.2) and speciation was simulated to examine the reaction path modeling of cinnabar (Jusa, HgS), and two arsenic mineral medicines Seokunghwang (AsS) and Jahwang (As₂ S₃) in the human body. The extraction test is an accepted in vitro method to predict bioaccessibility and bioavailability of major and minor elements from mineral medicines. It incorporates gastrointestinal tract parameters representative of a human body, including stomach and small intestinal pHs which are the same as digestion conditions. Jusa is used to make one's mind comfortable and manage hypertension. Seokunghwang and Jahwang are usually applied to cure convulsions in pediatrics and also used in China to cure certain cancers. In digestion reactions with artificial gastric fluids on Jusa, arsenic was extracted at levels of less than 1ppm and Hg 0.3ppm. The result of modeling shows that when HgS is digested in gastric tubes at pH=1.2-4, the chemical complex of Hg is a species we temporarily designate as HgS(H₂S)₂. When it is absorbed in small intestine of pH=7.4-8 and circulated in the body, it formed distinct species which we designate as HgS(H₂S)₂, Hg(HS)₃^- and HgS₂^2-. Also, when pH=6, the fluid exhausted from the body changes; HgS(H₂S)₂ and HgS₂^2- are dominant. Hg bioaccessibility is 0.001-0.003% and HgS₂^2- bioavailability is 30.8%. In digestion reaction tests with artificial fluids on arsenic minerals, As was extracted at 1.5-16.5ppm. Result of reaction path modeling show that major chemical complex in body after absorption in the small intestine at pH=8-7.4 is H₂AsO₃. HAS₃S₆^2- and H₂AsO₃ are also dominant at pH=6.0 in fluids exhausting from the body. As bioaccessibility is 0.02-0.24% and H₂AsO₃ bioavailability is 0.07%.