The Hidden History of Colloidal Gold

From Root To Crown · A Crystal special

They did not set gold aside because it failed.

Egyptians drank from gold. Faraday made metal in water the colour of a ruby. Zsigmondy proved the colour was particles and took a Nobel. The clinic used it for nerves and glands, not germs. Then the patent age wanted something it could own. This is the other record.

True colloid 40 PPM UK workshop

Scroll the centuries

The flask, named

What is colloidal gold?

Colloidal gold is elemental gold as particles so small they stay suspended in water. Not a dissolved salt. Not a dye. Faraday’s hydrosol: metal in the liquid, scattering light. Crystal’s bottle is that flask at 40 PPM, in purified water, in amber glass, from a UK workshop.

Gold particlesElemental gold, not a gold ion soup

Held in waterA dispersion, not a true solution

Ruby to purpleColour from how the particles scatter light

40 PPMCrystal’s stated concentration

Colloidal gold at 40 PPM: elemental gold particles suspended in purified water

The distinction that matters

Colloidal gold is not ionic gold

People mash the words. They are different forms of gold in liquid. A colloid holds physical particles of the metal. An ionic preparation holds dissolved gold ions. Faraday’s ruby fluid is the first. A salt solution is the second. Crystal belongs to the flask, not the salt.

Colloidal gold

Suspended particles of elemental gold
Can show red, ruby or purple
The Tyndall beam draws a line in the liquid
Particle size and whether they stay up both matter

Ionic gold

Gold present as dissolved ions
A different chemistry, even if the label says gold
Not the same as Faraday’s hydrosol
Injectable gold salts are this family, not a colloid

The physics of the colour

Why colloidal gold can look ruby

Bulk gold is yellow and metallic. Cut it small enough, put it in water, and it meets light differently. The particles absorb and scatter particular wavelengths. That is why a true gold colloid can look red, ruby, purple or darker — Purple of Cassius in glass, Faraday’s flask on the bench.

Particle size, shape, how even the mix is, concentration and whether the particles clump all change the shade. Colour is a clue. It is not a certificate of strength, purity or PPM.

Solid yellow gold beside ruby red 40 PPM colloidal gold in a flask

Concentration, plainly

What 40 PPM means

PPM is parts per million. In Crystal’s water-based gold it means forty milligrams of gold in a litre of liquid — 40 parts gold for every million parts of the finished bottle, by mass. A 500ml bottle at 40 PPM is that concentration, not a different recipe.

PPM is how much gold is there. It does not tell you particle size, how stable the suspension is, or the quality of the water. A higher number is not automatically a better colloid.

40 PPMCrystal’s gold concentration

500mlThe bottle Crystal sells

Two ingredientsPurified water and gold particles

Amber glassUK workshop, no fillers

40 mg gold in 1 litre = 40 PPM

Crystal’s 500ml bottle is that same 40 PPM concentration. PPM is how much gold is in the liquid. It does not describe particle size.

PPMHow much gold is in the bottle

Particle sizeHow the gold sits and scatters light

Crystal Health 40 PPM colloidal gold in a glass bottle

Scale of gold nanoparticles compared with a red blood cell and a human hair

Laboratory view of 40 PPM gold nanoparticles under a microscope

Timeline of gold science from ancient Egypt to Faraday and modern research

Follow the label on the bottle. Crystal’s suggested use is 30ml once daily, or as the label directs. No metal spoon. Store closed, cool and dark. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied diet. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medicine or under a doctor, ask first.

Shop 40 PPM colloidal gold

Egypt · Ayurveda · the soulAntiquity

Elixir of the gods, metal in the cup

Gold was never only money. Egyptians believed it had medicinal property. The old books call it the elixir of the gods: transformation of the soul, mind, body and spirit — more than wealth. In Ayurveda the metal is Swarna, taken as bhasma, an ash, or as a suspension, for heat in the tissues and for repair when it is made as the old books say. The cup came first. The laboratory named it later.

It is not silver’s job. Silver kept water sweet and wounds from turning. Gold’s record is different: glands, nerves, the heart’s weather — melancholy, will, the warmth mechanism. Same family of metals in water. Different work.

Gold in glass1650s

Purple of Cassius

Seventeenth-century glassmakers dissolved gold and struck a ruby-purple that would not fade. Glauber’s generation knew the colour. They did not yet have the word colloid. The purple was gold as particles in the melt — Faraday’s hydrosol, trapped in glass. Zsigmondy, two centuries on, showed Purple of Cassius was colloidal gold and stannic acid, and took the 1925 Nobel for seeing what the glass already knew.

The first metallic hydrosol1856–57

Ruby water, metal that will not settle

Michael Faraday, working on light and thin gold, reduced gold chloride and got a faint ruby fluid. The particles stayed up. They did not fall. He wrote that a cone of light was well defined in the liquid by the illuminated particles — Tyndall’s beam before the name stuck to silver. Some of those sols still sit at the Royal Institution, optically active after a century and a half. That is a colloid: metal in water, not a dissolved salt.

Thomas Graham had coined “colloid” in 1861 from kolla, glue. Faraday had already made the gold one. Everything after — Zsigmondy’s ultramicroscope, nano gold, Crystal’s 40 PPM — is that flask, refined.

Ultramicroscope · Nobel1897–1925

The colour was particles

Richard Zsigmondy, at Schott in Jena, measured gold sols and proved the ruby was not a dye. The ultramicroscope made the particles visible. The 1925 Nobel in Chemistry is the laboratory admitting what Faraday’s flask had been saying since 1856. “Nano” is a late word for an old size.

Twentieth-century rheumatoid clinics then used injectable gold salts. Same element, different chemistry — lunar caustic’s cousin, not Faraday’s hydrosol. The scare still mashes them. Crystal belongs to the flask, not the salt.

Nerves, glands, will1800s–1965

Not an antiseptic. A different shelf.

Colloidal gold is not considered an antiseptic or an antibiotic. The old literature puts nano gold against inflammation, glands, the pineal, the weather of the mind — not against infection. Cairo and Brinckmann’s Brazilian Materia Medica (1965) listed it first against obesity. In the United States it was used for dipsomania, the craving for alcohol, and later spoken of for drug craving and overeating, as an increase of will. Arthritis, bursitis, rheumatism, tendonitis. Digestive sluggishness, circulation, depression, burns, the heat of the menopause. The books call these the sicknesses of the heart.

A daily pairing of gold with silver is the traditional combination: silver for the germ, gold for the nerves and the glands. Faraday’s colour, Crystal’s bottle, the same metal in water.

The test

Tyndall. The beam that proves it is a colloid.

A true solution stays dark. Particles scatter. Faraday saw the cone of light in his ruby fluid. Put a laser through Crystal’s gold and the path is invisible in air — then a line in the liquid. Metal in water. Not a salt soup.

“The colour was particles.”

Zsigmondy’s Nobel, Faraday’s flask

The film

Crystal Health & BeautyNow

Amber. Distilled. 40 PPM.

Crystal’s colloidal gold is Faraday’s line: nano gold in purified water, 40 parts per million, amber glass, UK workshop. No colours, flavours or fillers. The ruby is the particle scattering light. Take it in the morning if a late dose keeps you wakeful. No metal spoon. Pair it with silver if you want the old combination.

Read The Benefits of Colloidal Gold. Shop the 40 PPM bottle. The workshop is the end of this timeline, not a break from it.

FAQ

Colloidal gold history, asked plainly

What is colloidal gold?

Elemental gold as nano-sized particles held in purified water. Faraday first made metallic gold colloids in 1856–57. The ruby or purple colour is how those particles scatter light, not a dye. It is a colloid, not a dissolved salt.

Is colloidal gold the same as ionic gold?

No. Colloidal gold holds physical particles of the metal. Ionic gold holds dissolved gold ions. They are different forms of gold in liquid. Crystal’s bottle is Faraday’s hydrosol — the particles, not the salt.

Why can colloidal gold look red or ruby?

Bulk gold is yellow. Cut small enough and put in water, the particles scatter particular wavelengths of light. The shade can run red, ruby, purple or darker depending on size, mix and concentration. Colour is not a measure of PPM.

What does 40 PPM mean?

PPM is parts per million. Crystal’s colloidal gold is 40 PPM: forty milligrams of gold per litre of liquid. PPM is concentration only. It does not describe particle size or prove a health effect.

Does a higher PPM mean better gold?

Not on its own. PPM is how much gold is in the bottle. Particle size, whether the suspension stays up, the water, and how it is made all sit beside that number.

When was colloidal gold first made in the laboratory?

Purple of Cassius — gold in glass — is seventeenth century. Faraday made stable gold hydrosols in 1856–57. Zsigmondy measured them and took the 1925 Nobel for proving the colour was particles.

What is the Tyndall effect in colloidal gold?

A true solution stays dark. Particles scatter. A laser through Faraday’s ruby sol draws a solid line in the liquid and stays invisible in air. That is how you know you have a colloid, not a dissolved salt.

How is Crystal’s colloidal gold made?

40 PPM gold particles in purified water, amber glass, UK workshop. Two ingredients. No colours, flavours or fillers.

How should I use and store it?

Follow the bottle. Crystal’s suggested use is 30ml once daily. No metal spoon. Keep the bottle closed, cool and dark. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medicine or under a doctor, ask first.

Is injectable gold the same as a colloid?

No. Twentieth-century rheumatoid clinics used gold salts. Faraday’s hydrosol is metal in water. Same element, different chemistry.