Title

Evolution of Arsenic as a Toxic and Therapeutic agent through ages - A Scientometric Study.

Authors

Kunal Mishra, Sasank S Maharik, Manoj Mishra, Dattatreya Kar

Abstract

Introduction: Arsenic is enormously toxic in chronic as well as in acute manifestations and this fact has been established in different works of literature. Arsenic gets inside the body by skin absorption, ingestion, and inhalation, then dispersed into different organs. Methodology: The objective of the study is to do a comparative study based on different research publications on Arsenic toxicity and its therapeutic uses. For retrieval of arsenic-related articles, the Scopus database was used and the results were presented in form of bibliometric tables. The articles which were published in the duration of 14 years from January 2008 to October 2021 were taken for this study. Total 7606 documents were retrieved from the SCOPUS database in which 6330 documents supported therapeutic nature and 1276 supporting toxic nature of Arsenic. Maximum documents on therapeutic uses of Arsenic (9.54 %) are published in the year 2020. Conclusion: Arsenic has been a source of constant fascination and has influenced the human psyche since time immemorial, owing to Arsenic’s ability to act both as a therapeutic and toxic agent. A critical study of the publications on Arsenic can open new vistas in Arsenic research.

Keywords

Arsenic, Arsenicosis, Bibliometrics, King of Poison, Arsenicals.