Antioxidant Activity of Water Soaked in Saligrama Stone – A Preliminary Report

Saligrama otherwise called Shaligram or Salagrama is a fossilized shell stone usually recovered from the banks of the Gandaki river in Nepal. It is supposed to be a sacred symbol of Hindus. Soaking the stone in water for twenty to thirty minutes and partaking the water was considered to give good health. Hence, we mobilized two stones which were authorized as original by experts. The first one was worshipped for more than 5 years and the other one for two years. The water soaked was around 25 ml which was analysed for antioxidant activity by DPPH assay with plain water without soakage as control. The antioxidant property was significantly found in both the stones with more activity in the stone worshipped for more than 5 years. We did not standardize the volume and the duration of soakage to exact values while it was approximated to around 20 – 30 minutes. We suggest more refined studies with estimation of rare elements needs to be performed to establish the beneficial effects of this sacred saligrama stone.