In ancient times, herbs, spices, roots, barks, leaves, seeds, and fruits of plants were used in the making of medicines. Along with that, minerals were also used in tiny quantities in order to supplement any sort of deficiency of a mineral in the body. This practice was known as Rasa (mineral/chemical)Shastra [Art.]
These minerals include minute quantities of gold, silver, lead, sulfur and other minerals. In fact, in ancient times, powdered bones were given to children, who were suffering from weak bones. We know now that that supplied a calcium deficiency, and in ancient times, Ayurveda practitioners “knew” through experimentation that powdered bones and powdered eggshells could help strengthen the bones of growing children.
Aromatic oil extracts have been used as part of aromatherapy as supportive healing remedies in Ayurveda. This oil extraction has been done for millenniums from flowers, leaves, roots, seeds, bark and other parts of plants.
In ancient times, tar and oil was used to cauterize wounds and to stop the blood flow, especially during operational procedures. These patients were anesthetized with alcohol. It was only in the medieval times, that more medical practices brought to the Indian subcontinent, from the invaders from Persia and other parts of Asia were incorporated into the basic concepts of Ayurvedic medicine. That is when narcotics like opium began to be used as an opiate, during surgical processes.
Blood clotting was stopped by using animal fat preparations with herbs added to them. Even today, any wound in an eastern village is smeared with a mixture of clarified butter in which a little bit of turmeric is added to stop the bleeding and to stop the skin from scarring. One may not know it, but this is traditional ancient medicine come down the ages and being used as a native natural remedy passed down the centuries.