Arka

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Aak

What the texts say Arka does

• Kushthaghna — used in skin disease
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Vamaka — emetic
• Shothahara — reduces swelling
• Vishaghna — antidote (against poison)
• Bhedana — breaks up hard, bound stool and expels it (purgative)

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

Side effects and limits

• Severe skin irritation and blistering from the latex
• Burning sensation
• Vomiting

Avoid or ask first: Self-treatment, absolutely.; Internal use other than under a qualified practitioner.; Pregnancy and breastfeeding.; and more below.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Among the upavisha. The latex is a severe ocular and mucosal irritant; internal use is specialist only.

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.

Katu and tikta with ushna virya and katu vipaka.

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.

Arka means the sun, and Surya says it again: the plant is sacred to the sun and its flowers are offered to Shiva and Ganesha. Ksheeraparni, milk-leaved, names the copious white latex that is the plant's chief hazard.

Rasa, guna, virya, vipaka and karma are recorded as the classical texts give them, with the text and section named so a student can open the book and check. Where an exact chapter and verse could not be confirmed, this library names the section rather than inventing a number.

Calotropis gigantea and Calotropis procera are used interchangeably and the texts themselves distinguish them only loosely. Because the plant is a free roadside weed, adulteration for profit is rare; the risk here is not a substitute but the plant itself.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026: Calotropis gigantea and Calotropis procera are BOTH accepted species, not synonyms of each other. Indian Dravyaguna teaching and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India give Arka as Calotropis gigantea, the purple-flowered kind, and Calotropis procera — the smaller, paler one — as Raktarka or Alarka. Both are used and both are toxic in the same way, but a student asked to name Arka should give gigantea. Classed among the upavisha; its latex is genuinely dangerous to eyes.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Calotropis is kalos (beautiful) + tropis (keel) — the keel of the flower. Gigantea for its size. Arka means sun, for the flower that faces it.

Arka heads its own gana in the Sushruta Samhita and is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the plant does in a body.

Constituents. The latex and root carry cardenolides — cardiac glycosides including calotropin and uscharin — which act on the heart in the same way digoxin does. That is the basis of the warning below.

• 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.