Ashvattha

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Peepal

What the texts say Ashvattha does

• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Vranaropana — heals wounds
• Raktastambhana — checks bleeding (haemostatic)
• Varnya — improves complexion
• Dahaprashamana — relieves burning

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

Side effects and limits

• Constipation from the tannins
• Digestive upset
• Skin irritation from the latex

Avoid or ask first: No absolute contraindication is documented here. This is written deliberately rather than left blank.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

One of the Kshiri Vriksha and of the Panchavalkala group.

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.

A single rasa, kashaya, with sheeta virya and katu vipaka — the shared profile of the Kshiri Vriksha.

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.

Chaladala, moving-leaved, is the field identification: the long drip-tip and slender stalk make the leaves tremble when nothing else does. Bodhivriksha records what happened under one.

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.

Bark of other Ficus species is used interchangeably, which the tradition half-permits since the four are used together. Because the tree is sacred and stands near temples, bark is often taken from trees growing beside roads and in towns, which means it carries urban pollution — the real quality question here is where, not what.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. One of the four Kshiri Vriksha. The tree the Buddha sat under, and the one whose long-tipped heart-shaped leaves move in the smallest wind.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Ficus is the Latin fig. Religiosa needs no translation — this is the tree the Buddha sat under, and the epithet records that.

Ashvattha is counted among the Nyagrodhadi gana in the Sushruta Samhita and described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the bark does in a body.

Constituents. The bark carries tannins, flavonoids including quercetin, and sterols.

• 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.