New insights and rethinking of cinnabar for chemical and its pharmacological dynamics

Figures & data

Figure 1. Physical and chemical properties of cinnabar.

Table 1. Available published papers on different research aspects of cinnabar.

Year	Research goal	Approaches	Outcomes	References
1998	Dissolution of Cinnabar	Cinnabar dissolution through isolated organic substance and water samples is repressed by cations	The presence of various organic and mineral ligands is not improved the mercury dissolution.	[14]
2002	Neurotoxic mechanism of cinnabar	Effect of commercial cinnabar and HgS on guinea pigs	HgS made a 60% caloric retort anomaly (20% hypofunction and 40% caloric hyperfunction).	[5]
2007	Cinnabar dissolution	In vitro study of cinnabar dissolution	Cinnabar dissolution is modified by protein (trypsin and pepsin), ion strength, and glycine; Low pH in stomach disturbs cinnabar dissolution.	[43]
2008	Cinnabar toxicology	Available cinnabar database compared with common mercurials, and discusses alterations in disposition, bioavailability and toxicity	Cinnabar is poorly absorbed and insoluble in the gastrointestinal region; Mainly accrued in kidney; Cinnabar is chemically passive with a comparatively low toxic possible when reserved orally.	[3]
2010	Dissolved substance of cinnabar	Investigate the probable cinnabar bioactivity after oral administration	Polysulfides mercuric, as the main dissolved components; Serve as dynamic cinnabar species for revealing pharmacological or toxicological properties	[27]
2012	Cinnabar caused neurotoxicological effects	Neurotoxic effects explore the cinnabar low-dose on mice	Revelation to low-dose of cinnabar through the developmental and perinatal stages consequences in irreversible and severe neurotoxicity damages in offspring, and NOx and Na^+/K^+-ATPase activities may exist potential and useful neurotoxicity-induced biomarkers by low mercuric doses.	[4]
2015	Chronic mercury introduction by cinnabar use	Applied light steady isotope and mercury isotope tracing to test hypotheses on the mercury origin in prehistoric bone of human	Mineral caused minor to high mercury harming in the early population; Useful to bioarchaeological researches.	[44]
2015	Mercury and arsenic containing Cinnabar powerfully Inhibit organic transporters	Investigate the samples disturb organic transporters, in vivo in mice	Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon accretions in kidney tissues are suggestively higher; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon absorb via renal slices is significantly reduced; Mercury and arsenic containing traditional medicine (Cinnabar and Realgar) probably encourage kidney damage.	[17]
2018	Cinnabar dissolution and its impact on environment	Identification, quantification and characterization of HgS	The formation and HgS dissolution played a critical role in geochemical Hg cycle, including its reduction, transport, toxicity, and methylation.	[32]

Figure 2. An overview of cinnabar source, environmental pollution, associated risk and their applications.

Ravichandran M, Aiken GR, Reddy MM, et al. Enhanced dissolution of cinnabar (mercuric sulfide) by dissolved organic matter isolated from the Florida everglades. Environ Sci Technol. 1998;32:3305–3311.

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Young YH, Chuu JJ, Liu SH, et al. Neurotoxic mechanism of cinnabar and mercuric sulfide on the vestibulo-ocular reflex system of guinea pigs. Toxicol Sci. 2002;67:256–263.

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Zeng K, Wang Q, Yang X, et al. In vitro investigation on cinnabar dissolution. Front Chem Chin. 2007;2(4):349–353.

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Liu J, Shi JZ, Yu LM, et al. Mercury in traditional medicines: is cinnabar toxicologically similar to common mercurials? Exp Biol Med . (Maywood). 2008;233(7):810–817.

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Zhou XR, Zeng K, Wang Q, et al. In vitro studies on dissolved substance of cinnabar: chemical species and biological properties. J Ethnopharmacol. 2010;131(1):196–202.

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Huang CF, Hsu CJ, Liu SH, et al. Exposure to low dose of cinnabar (a naturally occurring mercuric sulfide (HgS)) caused neurotoxicological effects in offspring mice. J Biomed Biotechnol. 2012;2012:1–12.

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Emslie SD, Brasso R, Patterson WP, et al. Chronic mercury exposure in Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic populations in Portugal from the cultural use of cinnabar. Sci Rep. 2015;5:14679.

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Yu WH, Zhang N, Qi JF, et al. Arsenic and mercury containing traditional chinese medicine (realgar and cinnabar) strongly inhibit organic anion transporters, Oat1 and Oat3, in vivo in mice. Biomed Res Int. 2015;2015:1–7.

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Chen Y, Yin YG, Shi JB, et al. Analytical methods, formation, and dissolution of cinnabar and its impact on environmental cycle of mercury. Crit Rev Environ Sci Technol. 2018;47(24):1–33.

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