Shilajit's heavy metal problem, why purification does not solve it

We sell shilajit. This article argues that a large share of the shilajit on the Indian market should not be swallowed, and explains the chemistry of why the industry’s standard reassurance does not work.

That is an awkward position for a manufacturer. We think it is the only defensible one, because the reasoning here is not a suspicion about bad actors, it is a property of the material itself.

The claim this article makes, in one sentence:

Classical purification removes stone, sand and debris. It does not reliably remove dissolved heavy metals. So “purified as per classical method” and “tested free of heavy metals” are different statements, and only one of them protects you.

General information, not medical advice. Shilajit should not be given to children or taken in pregnancy or breastfeeding, and in kidney disease it is a doctor’s decision. Those three are the consequences of what follows.

Why this material has the problem at all

Shilajit is not farmed. It is scraped off high-altitude rock faces.

It forms over centuries as plant and microbial matter trapped in rock humifies under pressure and seeps out through crevices.

And the substance that results has a specific chemical property that is central to everything here: humic substances are chelators. They bind metal ions. That is one of the things humic chemistry does, it is why humic substances matter in soil science, where they govern how metals move through soil and into plants.

So the material’s defining chemistry is “binds metals”.

And binding is indiscriminate. A humic molecule that chelates iron, magnesium and zinc, the trace elements shilajit is advertised for, chelates lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium by the same mechanism.

This is the whole problem, and it is not anyone’s fault. It is what the substance is.

Then add the collection conditions:

It is scraped off rock, mixed with stone, sand, soil and plant debris.

The rock itself may be mineral-rich in ways that include toxic elements, arsenic occurs naturally in many geological formations, and so do lead-bearing minerals.

And once it enters trade, a second and entirely different problem appears: adulteration. Shilajit commands a high price. High-price, hard-to-identify materials attract substitution and bulking, and the reported adulterants in this category have included ordinary soil, peat, bitumen, and cheap resins mixed with colourants. Some of those carry their own contamination.

So there are two distinct risks: the natural one, from the geology, and the fraudulent one, from the trade. Testing is the only thing that addresses either.

Now the central argument: why shodhana is not enough

This is the part the industry glosses over, and it is simple chemistry.

What classical shodhana does: dissolve the raw material in a liquid medium, water, triphala kwath, milk, in some descriptions gomutra, allow the insoluble matter to settle, filter, and gently concentrate the filtrate back to a resin. Sometimes repeated.

What that achieves, and it achieves it genuinely well:

It removes insoluble physical contaminants. Stone, grit, sand, insoluble debris. This is the main purpose and the classical texts are right to insist on it.

It reduces microbial load, through heat and filtration.

It makes the material consistent and usable.

What it cannot do:

Filtration separates insolubles from solubles. It does not separate one soluble from another.

And heavy metals in shilajit are not sitting there as loose grit you can filter out. They are substantially chelated to the humic fraction, the very fraction the process is designed to keep.

So when you dissolve the raw material and filter it, the humic substances go through the filter, and the metals bound to them go through with them. The purification concentrates the fulvic and humic content, and in doing so it can concentrate the associated metals too.

Read that again, because it inverts the intuition: a more thorough classical purification can produce a resin with a higher heavy metal concentration per gram than the raw material, because you have removed inert stone and kept the metal-binding organic fraction.

This is why “our shilajit is purified by the traditional method” is not a safety claim. It is a processing claim, and a legitimate one, about a different problem.

What is actually at stake

These are not theoretical toxicities. They are four of the best-characterised poisons in medicine.

Lead. A neurotoxin with no established safe level of exposure. In children the effects on cognitive development are permanent, this is why lead was removed from petrol and paint. In adults: hypertension, kidney damage, anaemia, neuropathy, reproductive effects. It accumulates in bone over years and is released slowly, including during pregnancy.

Arsenic. A recognised human carcinogen. Chronic exposure causes skin lesions, peripheral neuropathy, vascular disease and cancers. India has large regions with naturally arsenic-contaminated groundwater, so baseline exposure is already elevated for many people, meaning an added source matters more here than it would elsewhere.

Mercury. Neurotoxic and nephrotoxic. Inorganic mercury particularly affects the kidneys.

Cadmium. Its principal target organ is the kidney. It accumulates in the renal cortex with a biological half-life measured in decades. Also associated with bone effects.

And the common thread: these are cumulative, chronic, and largely silent. There is no symptom on day one. Someone taking contaminated resin daily for two years feels nothing attributable, which is exactly why this risk is tolerated in a way an acute one would not be.

And the people who come to harm are not randomly distributed:

Children, permanent neurodevelopmental effects, and a higher absorbed fraction of ingested lead than adults. Pregnant women, placental transfer, and mobilisation of lead stored in the mother’s bones. People with kidney disease, a damaged kidney cannot clear what it accumulates, and cadmium and mercury damage the kidney further. This is a loop. And anyone taking it long-term, which is exactly how a rasayana is supposed to be taken.

The documented background

This is not an argument we invented.

Heavy metal contamination in some traditional Ayurvedic and herbo-mineral products is documented in the international medical literature, including case reports of lead poisoning traced to such products and survey studies finding elevated metal content in a proportion of samples tested. Several of those papers concern bhasma and metal-containing classical formulations rather than shilajit specifically, and we should say that plainly rather than overstate.

But the mechanism applies to shilajit with particular force, because of the chelating chemistry and the geological origin. And regulatory limits for heavy metals exist in Indian pharmacopoeial standards for Ayurvedic materials precisely because the risk is recognised.

So the question is not whether the risk is real. It is whether a given batch has been tested.

What testing actually has to look like

And here is where most “we test our products” claims fall apart.

Batch-wise, not once. A certificate from a batch produced two years ago tells you nothing about the jar in your hand. Natural material varies by deposit, by collection site, by season. One good result is not a property of the brand; it is a property of that batch. This is the single most common evasion in the category.

All four metals, lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium. Not “heavy metals: pass” with no figures.

With actual numbers and the limit stated. A result of “below detection limit” needs the detection limit printed, because a sloppy method has a high one.

From an accredited laboratory, NABL accreditation in India, not an in-house result on a letterhead.

By a competent method. ICP-MS is the current standard for trace metals. A method that cannot reach low concentrations will report “not detected” for something that is present.

And on the finished product, not just the raw material. Processing and packaging can add contamination.

What you should be able to ask for and receive: the certificate of analysis for the batch number printed on your pack. If a manufacturer cannot produce that, the honest interpretation is that it does not exist.

We hold ourselves to this and we think it is the minimum, not a feature.

The specific situations to avoid entirely

Unbranded resin sold loose. No batch number, no certificate, no accountability. There is no way to assess it.

Material bought “at the source”, in a hill station, from a shop or an individual near a collection area. The romance of this is exactly inverted: this is the scenario with the least testing in the entire supply chain. We have had customers tell us proudly that they buy theirs in Himachal from a man who collects it himself. That is a description of an untested product.

Anything sold in a plain container with handwritten labelling.

Very cheap shilajit. Genuine purified shilajit with batch testing has a cost floor. Material priced well below it is either not shilajit or not tested, and often both.

And “raw”, “unprocessed”, “straight from the mountain” sold as premium. The classical tradition itself requires purification. A seller advertising its absence is advertising a missing step.

What we do, and what we will not say

What we do:

Batch-wise heavy metal testing, lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, on finished product, from an accredited laboratory, with the certificate available to anyone who asks for it by batch number.

Microbiological testing, total plate count, yeast and mould, E. coli, Salmonella.

Fulvic acid content with the test method stated, because the method is part of the number.

Water-insoluble matter, which tells you how well the purification was actually done.

And documented origin.

What we will not say:

We will not say “purified, therefore safe.” That is the false equivalence this entire article exists to refuse.

We will not say “100% natural, therefore pure.” Lead is natural. Arsenic is natural. “Natural” and “safe” have no relationship, and in a geological material they are close to opposites.

We will not say “traditionally used for centuries, therefore safe.” Traditional use is evidence about perceived benefit. It is not evidence about chronic low-dose heavy metal exposure, which produces effects nobody in the pre-analytical era could have attributed to the product. A tradition cannot detect a slow, silent toxin. That is not a criticism of the tradition; it is a limit of observation without instruments.

And on claims generally: there is no authorised health claim for shilajit, not for energy, testosterone, stamina or immunity. We also will not use shilajit in sexual-performance advertising, which is separately restricted in India under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, and which is where the most frightened people are charged the most money.

What we insist appears on a pack: the batch number; not for children, pregnancy or breastfeeding; a line for kidney and liver disease; and a line telling anyone on regular medication to ask their doctor, because the classical description of shilajit as yogavahi, a carrier that enhances other medicines, is itself a reason to ask.

The honest summary

Shilajit’s chemistry is metal-binding. Its origin is rock. Its trade has an adulteration problem. And its classical purification was designed to remove grit, which it does, and cannot remove dissolved metals, which it does not.

So the only thing standing between this material and a slow, silent, cumulative exposure is an analytical certificate for the batch in your hand.

If you have that certificate, this is an ordinary supplement with ordinary uncertainties about whether it does much.

If you do not have it, you are taking a concentrated humic extract of unknown geological origin, daily, for months, on the strength of the word “purified”.

That is the whole argument, and we would rather lose the sale than leave it unsaid.

When to see a doctor

Do not take shilajit at all if you:

• are pregnant, placental transfer, and lead stored in bone is mobilised in pregnancy
• are breastfeeding
• are under 18, permanent neurodevelopmental effects and higher absorption

Ask your doctor first if you:

• have kidney disease of any stage, the kidney cannot clear what accumulates, and cadmium and mercury damage it further
• have liver disease
• have haemochromatosis or iron overload, shilajit contains iron
• have gout or raised uric acid
• take diabetes or blood pressure medication, monitoring
• have any hormone-sensitive condition
• take any regular medicine, the yogavahi description is the reason

Stop and get medical advice if you develop: persistent abdominal pain or constipation, unexplained anaemia, tingling or weakness in hands or feet, memory or concentration change, yellowing of the eyes, dark urine, reduced urine output, or a metallic taste. Tell the doctor exactly what you have been taking, including unbranded material and for how long. Heavy metal exposure is diagnosable, lead and other levels can be measured, but only if someone thinks to look, and they will only think to look if you tell them.

And for a child who has been given shilajit or any unbranded herbo-mineral product: mention it to the paediatrician, specifically. Do not wait for symptoms.

The short version

1. Classical purification removes grit; it does not remove dissolved heavy metals
2. So “purified traditionally” and “tested for heavy metals” are different statements
3. Shilajit is scraped off high-altitude rock, not farmed
4. Humic substances are chelators, binding metals is their defining chemistry
5. And binding is indiscriminate: iron and zinc by the same mechanism as lead and cadmium
6. This is not anyone’s fault; it is what the substance is
7. The source rock may naturally contain arsenic and lead-bearing minerals
8. A second, separate risk is adulteration, soil, peat, bitumen, cheap resins with colourant
9. Shodhana dissolves, settles, filters and concentrates
10. Filtration separates insolubles from solubles, not one soluble from another
11. Metals chelated to the humic fraction pass through with it
12. So thorough purification can raise metal concentration per gram
13. Lead has no established safe level and its effects on children are permanent
14. Lead accumulates in bone and is released during pregnancy
15. Arsenic is a recognised human carcinogen
16. Many Indian regions already have arsenic in groundwater, raising baseline exposure
17. Cadmium’s target organ is the kidney, with a half-life in decades
18. All four are cumulative, chronic and silent, no symptom on day one
19. Which is why a rasayana taken long-term is the worst case
20. Highest risk: children, pregnancy, kidney disease, long-term users
21. Heavy metals in traditional products are documented in the medical literature
22. Indian pharmacopoeial limits exist because the risk is recognised
23. Testing must be batch-wise, natural material varies by site and season
24. One good result is a property of that batch, not of the brand
25. All four metals, with numbers and the limit stated
26. “Below detection limit” needs the detection limit printed
27. Accredited laboratory, not an in-house letterhead
28. ICP-MS is the current standard method
29. Tested on finished product, not only raw material
30. Ask for the certificate matching your batch number; if it cannot be produced, it does not exist
31. Avoid unbranded loose resin entirely
32. Buying “at the source” is the least-tested scenario in the chain
33. Very cheap shilajit is either not shilajit or not tested
34. “Raw” and “unprocessed” as premium claims advertise a missing step
35. “Natural” and “safe” have no relationship, lead is natural
36. Tradition cannot detect a slow silent toxin; that is a limit of observation, not a fault
37. There is no authorised health claim for shilajit

Ingredient detail: shilajit. Our formats: Shilajit Resin, Shilajit Capsule, Shilajit Drops. Related reading: what purified shilajit actually is, असली और नकली शिलाजीत कैसे पहचानें, shilajit claims you should not believe, and choosing a contract manufacturer.