Depending on where you are in South Africa, cinnabar or mercury is either known as insimbi, isigidi, imbekisani, umviki, or umuthi ogxumayo. Mercury in its various forms has been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years as an ingredient in various remedies. It’s estimated that Chinese traditional medicine and Indian ayurvedic, siddhi, and unani medicine have been using cinnabar for 2000 years. Extensive research has been done on the use of mercury in Chinese, Ayurvedic, Siddhi, Unani, Hispanic, and Caribbean traditional medicine. As such, the following uses will only explore the uses of mercury in African and South African traditional medicine.