Chakramarda

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Chakvad

What the texts say Chakramarda does

• Kushthaghna — used in skin disease
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Rechana — purgative
• 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

• Loose stool and cramping
• Skin irritation in some people

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy, in medicinal quantity.; Intestinal obstruction or undiagnosed abdominal pain.; Inflammatory bowel disease.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Chiefly external in dadru. The seed in quantity is laxative.

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.

Katu and madhura 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.

Dadrughna means destroyer of dadru, ringworm, and it is the paryaya that states the use. A student asked what chakramarda is for should be able to answer from the name.

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.

Senna obtusifolia is nearly identical and grows alongside it, and the two are collected together without distinction; they are chemically similar enough that this matters less than most substitutions here. Senna occidentalis, however, is a different matter — it is toxic to livestock and is sometimes collected with them, and it is worth separating.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Cassia tora is a synonym. A weed of every monsoon field margin in India, and one a student can find and identify within minutes.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Senna from Arabic sana. Tora is from the Sinhalese name. Chakra-marda means ringworm-crusher, which is the classical use and an easy hook.

Chakramarda is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu, where its use on the skin is recorded. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the seed does in a body.

Constituents. The seed carries anthraquinones including chrysophanol, emodin and rhein — the same class that makes senna purgative — along with the naphthopyrone toralactone.

• 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.