10.22376/ijpbs.2019.10.1.p1-12 Volume 4 Issue 4 2013 (October - December) Traditional medicine has maintained its popularity in every region of the developing world. Its practice is increasingly adopted by people worldwide. Indian traditional system of medicine Ayurveda makes use of unique metallic-herbal preparations (called  lessThan i greaterThan Bhasma lessThan /i greaterThan s) These bhasmas are prepared as per procedures described in ancient textsThese typically involve iterative processes involving calcination of metal in presence of herbal products.The lessThan i greaterThan Swarna bhasma lessThan /i greaterThan has been used in treatment of many diseases. In the context of novel properties attributed to nanoparticles, in recent times, the present project aims at chemical characterization of Bhasma preparations. Such characterization would be useful to gain insight into its therapeutic properties. lessThan i greaterThan The lessThan /i greaterThan lessThan i greaterThan Swarna bhasma lessThan /i greaterThan samples from three different manufacturers were procured and physiochemical characterization was carried out. Chemically synthesized, commercially available gold nanoparticles were used as control. Particle size and surface area analysis of the samples indicated the presence of micron-sized particles in the range of 3µm-50µm. Size of gold nanoparticles ranged from 88nm-206nm. Gold content in the bhasma samples,ranges from 87% to 98%. The studies indicate that commercially available lessThan i greaterThan Swarna Bhasmas lessThan /i greaterThan do not seem to contain nanosized particles. M. RATHORE, D.S. JOSHI, S.N. KADAM AND R.D.BAPAT Swarna Bhasma, Gold Nanoparticles, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Atomic absorption spectroscopy 243-249