Brihati

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Badi kateri

What the texts say Brihati does

• Kasahara — relieves cough
• Shwasahara — relieves breathlessness
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Pachana — digests ama (digestive)
• Jwaraghna — used in fever
• Hridya — good for the heart

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

Side effects and limits

• Burning sensation
• Digestive upset

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy.; Conditions aggravated by ushna and tikshna dravya.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

One of the Dashamoola, with Kantakari as its pair.

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

Solanum anguivi and S. indicum are both traded as Brihati. The alkaloid is the marker; the species is the question.

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, the same profile as kantakari.

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.

Brihati means the large one, set against Kshudra, the small one, which is kantakari. The pair is called Brihatidvaya and is examined as a pair. Vartaki is not a Brihati synonym: it is Solanum melongena, the brinjal, a separate dravya in the same genus.

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 substitution problem here begins with the botany rather than the market: because Solanum indicum cannot be resolved to a single accepted species, material sold as Brihati in one region may be a different species from material sold under the same name elsewhere, with no dishonesty anywhere in the chain. Solanum violaceum and Solanum anguivi are both used. Kantakari is also substituted, and the two are in any case paired in the same formulations.

This entry carries an unresolved name, and says so rather than hiding it. Ayurvedic literature names Brihati as Solanum indicum L. When that name was checked live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 it could not be resolved below genus: the accepted names returned were Solanum anguivi Lam. and Solanum violaceum Ortega, and different authorities apply the old name to different plants. This entry uses Solanum anguivi as the accepted name while recording plainly that the identity behind the classical Brihati is not settled. One of the ten roots of Dashamoola.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Solanum from solamen, solace — the family's sedative reputation. Anguivi is from a Madagascan name. Brihati means the large one, against Kantakari the small one.

Brihati is counted among the Laghu Panchamoola and is paired with kantakari as Brihatidvaya throughout the classical literature. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the plant does in a body.

Constituents. The plant carries steroidal glycoalkaloids including solasodine, along with steroidal saponins.

• 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.