Bibhitaki

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Baheda

What the texts say Bibhitaki does

• Chakshushya — good for the eyes
• Keshya — good for the hair
• Bhedana — breaks up hard, bound stool and expels it (purgative)
• Kasahara — relieves cough
• Kaphahara — pacifies kapha

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

Side effects and limits

• Loose stools
• Stomach discomfort
• Dry mouth from the tannins

Avoid or ask first: No absolute contraindication is documented here for the deseeded pericarp. This is written deliberately rather than left blank.; The kernel is not used at all, which is a rule about the material rather than a contraindication.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

One of the three of Triphala; the fruit pulp only, seed discarded.

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

Pericarp only. The seed is discarded and its presence is detectable in the ash.

These are the pharmacopoeial limits for the article, not a test Laisha has run on anything. They are here so a practitioner can ask a supplier for a certificate of analysis and know what the numbers on it should say.

A single rasa, kashaya, and that singleness is the usual exam contrast with amalaki and haritaki, which each carry five.

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.

Aksha is also the name of the die used in dice, and the fruit was used as one — the association survives in the Mahabharata and in the dravya's reputation.

Rasa, guna, virya, vipaka and karma are recorded as the classical texts give them, with the text and section named. Where an exact verse could not be confirmed the section is named instead of a number being invented.

Confused in the market with haritaki, which grows in the same forests, is the same genus and dries to a similar dark fruit. The more serious problem is the kernel: bibhitaki powder milled from the whole fruit includes a seed the traditional literature reports as intoxicant, and no buyer can see that in a powder. Buy the deseeded pericarp whole.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence as Terminalia bellirica (Gaertn.) Roxb. in Combretaceae. Same genus as haritaki and often growing beside it, which is exactly why the dried fruits are confused in the market.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Terminalia, leaves at the end of the shoot. Bellirica is from the Persian balilaj, the same word behind the Hindi bahera. Bibhitaki means the one that removes fear of disease.

Bibhitaki is one of the three fruits of Triphala and is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu alongside haritaki and amalaki. Ayurveda records it as chakshushya and keshya and as acting principally on kapha. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the fruit does in a body.

Constituents. The pericarp carries hydrolysable tannins including chebulagic acid and gallic acid derivatives, together with lignans. The kernel has a quite different composition from the pericarp, which is the compositional reason the two are not interchangeable.

• 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.