Amlavetasa

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

What the texts say Amlavetasa does

• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Pachana — digests ama (digestive)
• Hikkanigrahana — relieves hiccups
• Chhardighna — relieves vomiting
• Hridya — good for the heart

What the evidence says. Traditional use is long recorded. Modern clinical evidence is limited.

Side effects and limits

• Aggravation of pitta
• Acidity with prolonged use

Avoid or ask first: Not used where there is a marked pitta state or active acid symptoms, on the classical reasoning that it is amla and ushna.

A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Small quantity; classically used within compound preparations.

Reported from Sharangadhara Samhita and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India. Laisha states what the texts prescribe; it does not recommend. No quantity here is adjusted for a particular person — not for agni, koshtha, bala, age, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything already being taken.

Amla with ushna virya and amla vipaka — one of the few dravya where the rasa and the vipaka are both amla, which is why it heads the sour group.

These are the actions the classical texts record. They are statements about what the tradition holds, and this library does not restate them as findings about a human body.

Garcinia pedunculata, Garcinia morella, Rheum australe and even tamarind are all supplied as Amlavetasa. This is an unsettled identification rather than a simple adulteration, and the practitioner must know which plant is meant because a fruit and a rhubarb stem are not substitutable.

Amlavetasa is a contested identity. Garcinia pedunculata is the article accepted in much of modern practice; Rheum australe, the Himalayan rhubarb, is the older identification and the one that fits the classical description of a sour stem from the hills. Both are in current use under this name.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Garcinia honours Laurent Garcin. Pedunculata, for the long-stalked fruit. Amlavetasa means the sour cane, which describes a rhubarb stem far better than it describes a fruit — and that is the whole argument about its identity, sitting inside the name.

Amlavetasa is named in five of Charaka's mahakashaya, consistently among the deepana and the hiccough groups. Which plant the texts meant is the part that is no longer settled.

• This is a study and clinical reference for practitioners and students. The matra and anupana it records are what the classical texts and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India PRESCRIBE — Laisha reports them, it does not recommend them. They are not a prescription for any particular person, and they are not adjusted for your age, agni, koshtha, bala, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything else you are already taking. Only a qualified practitioner who has examined you can do that.
• Traditional classification is recorded as what the classical texts say, with the text and the place in it named so it can be checked. It is not restated as a finding about a human body.
• Nothing here replaces a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or a doctor.