A report on the composition of mercurials used in traditional medicines in Oman

A brick red powder, used by a 'native physician' (a practitioner of traditional medicine in Oman) to treat a female patient for vitiligo, has been analysed by X-ray powder diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (S.E.M.). It was found to be a mixture of cinnabar (HgS) and calomel (Hg2Cl2). Symptoms of acute mercury poisoning resulted from the patient repeatedly breathing in elemental mercury vapour after this brick red powder and elemental mercury encased in a lime, were thrown on an open fire in a closed room. The patient also presented with central nervous system toxicity which improved gradually after treatment with Dimercaprol was discontinued. The use of mercurials as traditional medicines in Oman is briefly reviewed; as is the variation in literature values for 'normal'/'abnormal'/toxic levels of mercury in human blood.