Chapter 1.2

The curative nature of mumian is due to large quantity of micro-elements in it. In order to investigate the elementary composition of the Armenian curative mumian we took samples of dry, "natural" resin each 0.125 grams. The emission-spectrographic method was used. The samples were burnt and the concentration of each element was determined by the intensity of characteristic lines of the absorption spectrum. Table 1 represents the concentrations of microelements in the nuggets of Armenian mumian.

Table 1.Concentrations of microelements in the nugget of Armenian curative cave resin mumian (%).

1-3

1-2

10^-1

1x10^-2 - 5x10^-2

5x10^-2

1x10^-2

5x10^-3- 1x10^-2

3x10^-3- 1x10^-2

5x10^-3

4x10^-3

30 samples were investigated and 14 elements were found. The results are on the Figure 3, where the concentrations of elements are given on a logarithmic scale.

Figure 3. Hypothetical and real elementary composition of the Armenian mumian ( full heights and black parts of the peaks respectively ).

The concentration of each element is determined by the full height of the peak. The concentrations are within certain limits (see Table 1). As it can be seen on the Figure 1, Ca, Si and Al are the main components of the mumian, and the concentrations of micro-elements change by the following series: Ca » Al » Si > Mg > Fe » Na > Mn » Ba » Cu > Pb » Ti > Cr » V > Ni > B » Zr.

Similar results were obtained for other samples of mumian and for the raw material as well: the manure of wild goats. The results show that the Armenian mumian has the same elementary composition as all mumians [8],[12]. The raw material of the mumian has plant origin and by the presence of Si and Al in the mumian, concentrations of which in the living bodies cannot exceed 0.15% and 0.01% respectively, it can be concluded that the concentrations of microelements in mumian are not real. They are the elementary composition of some soils [3] which are present in the mumian.

For the purpose of verification of this hypothesis we investigated the soluble and non-soluble portions of mumian individually. The results are presented on the Figure 3 and in Table 2.

Table 2.Concentrations of microelements (%) in soluble and non-soluble portions of Armenian mumian (first row - elementary composition of non-soluble portion, second row - elementary composition of soluble portion).

¹	Fe	Mn	Cu	Ti	Pb	Al	V
1	0.72	0.005	0.04	0.039	0.0042	1.35	0.0054
	0.0074	0.003	0,005	0.006		0.03	[<0.0005]
6	0.46	0.0054	0.038	0.034	0.0045	2.15	0.0048
	0.0088	0.004	0,001	0.0048	---	0.034	[<0.0005]
7a	0.92	0.013	0.04	0.39	0.007	2.15	0.0094
	0.0076	0.0042	0,004	0.0021	---	0.032	[<0.0005]
7d	0.48	0.042	0.028	0.025	0.003	1.0	0.0052
	0.0088	0.0033	0,0027	0.0014	---	0.032	[<0.0005]
7f	0.92	0.032	0.036	0.034	0.007	2.9	0.010
	0.012	0.0044	0,004	0.0014	<0.0005	0.035	<0.0005
12	0.46	0.023	0.042	0.013	0.0046	0.63	0.0034
	0.007	0.005	0,002	0.001	---	0.029	<0.0005
15	0.34	0.014	0.003	0.016	0.001	1.0	0.003
	0.006	0.0032	0,001	0.0012	[<0.0005]	0.03	[<0.0005]

¹	Fe	Mn	Cu	Ti	Pb	Al	V
16	0.65	0.013	0.0028	0.023	0.0026	4.0	0.0033
	---	0.0046	0,001	---	[<0.0005]	0.092	[<0.0005]
17	0.98	0.013	0.0026	0.025	0.003	4.0	0.0072
	---	0.0033	0,001	0.002	[<0.0005]	0.04	[<0.0005]
18	0.92	0.016	0.0042	0.024	0.001	4.0	0.0072
	---	0.0035	0,001	0.0013	[<0.0003]	0.11	0,0005

The black parts of the peaks on the Figure 3 represent concentrations of microelements in the soluble portion of the mumian. From the Figure 3 one can see that the real concentration of Al in the mumian is approximately 0.01% and the real concentration of Si is approximately 0.1%. Concentrations of other microelements decrease by 1-2 degrees too. Concentrations of Mg and Na are approximate as the method does not allow precise determination ( see Table 3 ).

Table 3.Approximate concentrations of Mg and Na in the nuggets of Armenian mumian.

Sample	Mg (%)		Na (%)		Dissolve (%)
	sediment	solution	sediment	solution
1	>0.3 [0.3-1]	<0.3	<1	>0.1	55
6	>0.3 [0.3-1]	<0.3	<1	0.03	54
7a	>0.3 [0.3-1]	0.3	>1	>0.1	31
7d	>0.3 [0.3-1]	0.3	<1	>0.1	43
7f	>0.3 [0.3-1]	<0.3	>1	0.03	54
15	>0.3 [0.3-1]	<0.3	<<1	0.03	38
16	0.3	<0.3	1	0.03	45
17	0.3	<0.3	1	0.03	39
18	0.3	<0.3	1	0.03	45
19	<0.3	0.3	0.03	0.03	39
12	0.3	<0.3	0.03	<0.03	18

The elements Pb, As, Ba, Ni, Cr and V in fact are missing. This means that the concentrations of these microelements are below the sensitiveness of the emission spectrographic method which, for the following elements, is equal: Ba and As - 10^-2%, Ni and Pb - 10^-3%, Cr and V - 5x10^-4%.

It is especially important that the concentrations of As and Pb are below the limits of their toxicity: this is one of the requirements to each medicine.

Comparing the elementary composition of mumian to the elementary composition of soils and plants [14] we conclude that the elementary composition of curative cave resin mumian presented in the literature is not real. The elementary composition of plants serve as basis for real elementary composition of the mumian.