Ativisha

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Atis

What the texts say Ativisha does

• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Pachana — digests ama (digestive)
• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Jwaraghna — used in fever
• Amapachana — digests ama
• Balarogahara — used in children's diseases (balaroga)

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

Side effects and limits

• Digestive upset
• Bitterness

Avoid or ask first: Unverified material, particularly for a child.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

An Aconitum that is NOT a poison and needs no shodhana — the classical exception, and the reason the identity must be certain. A staple of Balachaturbhadra for children.

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.

Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, Part I

Aconitum heterophyllum is non-toxic; substitution with toxic Aconitum species is the danger, and the test is for the aconitine that must NOT be there.

These are the marker and the identity test for this dravya, and they are not a test Laisha has run on anything. Laisha does not state the numeric limits here: the assay, ash and extractive figures must be read from the current edition of the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, because a wrong limit printed here is a number a laboratory would act on. The entries in this library that DO carry figures carry them because each one was checked.

Tikta and katu 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.

Avisha means not-poison, and it exists precisely to say that this Aconitum is not vatsanabha. A student asked to distinguish the two should reach for this paryaya first.

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.

Because ativisha is scarce, expensive and endangered, other Aconitum species are substituted — and some of those are poisonous, which makes this among the most dangerous substitutions in the whole materia medica. A child given a poisonous Aconitum in place of ativisha, in a formulation specifically chosen because ativisha is safe for children, is the exact scenario this note exists to prevent. Cyperus rotundus and other bitter roots are also sold as ativisha.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The most important fact about this plant is what it is not: although it is an Aconitum, the genus of vatsanabha, ativisha is NOT a poison and needs no shodhana. The texts are explicit that it is avisha, not poisonous, despite the name. Assessed as endangered and heavily over-collected.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Aconitum is the classical name for monkshood. Heterophyllum is hetero (different) + phyllon (leaf) — the leaves differ in shape up the same stem. Ati-visha means intense poison, though this is the one Aconitum used after shodhana.

Ativisha is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu, which states plainly that it is not poisonous, and it is named in the Charaka Samhita among the digestive dravya. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the root does in a body.

Constituents. The tuber carries atisine and related diterpenoid alkaloids, which are chemically distinct from the aconitine group in vatsanabha and are not cardiotoxic in the same way.

• 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.