Ayush adds mercury, lead and copper to revised poisonous substances list

The Ministry of Ayush has replaced the list of poisonous substances that governs Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Sowa-Rigpa medicines, adding metals such as mercury, copper, lead, tin and brass to the schedule, according to the notification and trade reports published this month. The change is made by the Drugs (Thirteenth Amendment) Rules, 2026, notified as G.S.R. 862(E) dated September 15, 2026, which substitutes a new Schedule E(1) in the Drugs Rules, 1945. The revision was reported as announced by the ministry on October 10, 2026, and it came into force on the date of its publication in the Official Gazette. A catch-all clause now treats any unlisted ingredient that contains arsenic or mercury as a chemical constituent as a Schedule E(1) drug.

Schedule E(1) is more than a reference list. Under the Drugs Rules, a medicine meant for internal use that is made with any Schedule E(1) substance must carry the caution "To be taken under medical supervision" on its label, in English and Hindi. Consumer authorities have also used the schedule to set rules for online sales: an advisory to e-commerce platforms says such medicines should be sold only after a valid prescription from a registered Ayurveda, Siddha or Unani practitioner is uploaded. When a substance is added to the schedule, every product made with it comes under those labelling and supervision duties.

The metals now named appear in classical mineral-based preparations, and the schedule now lists them together with their common ores and compounds, such as cinnabar for mercury and galena for lead. Naming them outright means a product made with any of these substances cannot be treated as outside the schedule simply because the earlier list did not mention it. For a buyer, the practical result is a clearer warning on the pack.

The catch-all clause on arsenic and mercury is the most significant change for manufacturers. Earlier lists depended on the exact names of ingredients. Now the test is chemical: if a substance contains arsenic or mercury, it falls under the schedule whatever its traditional name. That makes it harder for a product to escape the rule because an ingredient was described differently.

Sowa-Rigpa's separate list is also a step in bringing that system under the same drug-control framework as the older Ayush systems, with its own named substances rather than borrowed entries.

Short-term: Manufacturers of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Sowa-Rigpa medicines must check every formulation against the new list. Products that now contain a scheduled substance need the medical-supervision caution on their labels, and online sellers will need prescriptions for them.

Long-term: Clearer naming of metals and a chemical test for arsenic and mercury give state licensing authorities a firmer basis for inspection and enforcement. Over time this may push makers to test raw materials for heavy metals more routinely and to document processing methods more carefully.

Who is affected: Ayush drug manufacturers and their quality teams, pharmacists and online platforms that sell traditional medicines, practitioners who prescribe mineral-based formulations, state drug controllers, and patients who buy Ayurvedic or Siddha medicines without a consultation.

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