Bala

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Khareti

What the texts say Bala does

• Balya — strengthening
• Brimhana — nourishing, builds tissue
• Vatahara — pacifies vata
• Rasayana — rejuvenative
• Vrishya — aphrodisiac, supports reproductive vigour
• Shukrala — increases semen

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

Side effects and limits

• Raised heart rate
• Restlessness and difficulty sleeping
• Raised blood pressure

Avoid or ask first: Heart disease, irregular heartbeat, or high blood pressure.; Overactive thyroid.; Glaucoma.; and more below.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

The classical balya. Ephedrine-type alkaloids are present, which is why the FDA acted on it in 2004.

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, madhura, with sheeta virya and madhura vipaka — as clean a balya profile as the materia medica has.

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.

Bala means strength, and the name is the indication: the texts use it where strength is lost. The group names — Atibala, greater strength; Mahabala, great strength — build on the same word.

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.

The four of the Bala group are substituted for one another, which the texts themselves half-permit since they are named as a group. Sida acuta, Sida rhombifolia and Abutilon indicum are all collected and traded under these names, and once the roots are dried and cut they are difficult to separate. Because ephedrine content differs between species, this is a substitution with a safety consequence and not only a pharmacological one.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The texts describe a group of four — Bala, Atibala, Nagabala and Mahabala — which are different species and are examined together. This plant contains ephedrine, and that is the most consequential thing in the entry.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Sida is an old Greek plant name. Cordifolia is heart-leaved: cor, cordis (heart) + folium (leaf). Bala means strength.

Bala is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and is recorded throughout the classical literature as balya and brimhana. 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 plant carries ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, along with other alkaloids. Ephedrine is a regulated stimulant and its presence here is the reason for 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.