Bhringaraja

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Bhangra

What the texts say Bhringaraja does

• Keshya — good for the hair
• Rasayana — rejuvenative
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Twachya — good for the skin
• Vrishya — aphrodisiac, supports reproductive vigour

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

Side effects and limits

• Digestive upset
• Skin irritation on external use in some people

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

The keshya use is largely external; the internal matra above is the yakrit-uttejaka one.

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

Wedelolactone is the accepted marker for Eclipta alba. Its absence in a sample sold as bhringaraja is the clearest single indicator of a substitute.

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.

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.

Kesharaja means king of hair and Kesharanjana means hair-colouring. Both paryaya record the single use the tradition is most insistent about, and a student is expected to connect the name to that use.

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.

Wedelia chinensis, also a yellow-flowered Asteraceae of wet ground, is collected and sold as bhringaraja and is sometimes called Peeta Bhringaraja, yellow bhringaraja. Sellers who use that name are being accurate about the trade and inaccurate about the botany. There is also a blue-flowered plant sold as Neeli Bhringaraja which is usually Indigofera tinctoria, an entirely different family.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Eclipta alba is a synonym of the same species and both names appear in the Ayurvedic literature; they are not two plants.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Eclipta is ekleipo, to be deficient — the ray florets are missing a pappus. Prostrata, lying flat on the ground, which is how it grows. Bhringa-raja means king of bees.

Bhringaraja is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and is recorded as keshya, acting on the hair. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the herb does in a body.

Constituents. The herb carries coumestans including wedelolactone, along with flavonoids. Content varies with population and growing conditions.

• 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.