Darbha

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

What the texts say Darbha does

• Mutrala — diuretic
• Daha prashamana — relieves burning
• Raktastambhana — checks bleeding (haemostatic)
• Trishna nigrahana — relieves thirst

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

Side effects and limits

A grass root in long and wide use with no significant toxicity recorded. Imperata cylindrica is one of the world's most invasive weeds, so it is not scarce and there is no collection pressure behind it. Anyone pregnant, on medication or managing a diagnosed condition should speak to a doctor or a qualified practitioner first.

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

Usually as one of the Trina Panchamula rather than alone.

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.

Madhura and kashaya with sheeta virya and madhura vipaka, matching the rest of the Trina Panchamula.

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.

Darbha and Kusha are treated as one name across most of the market, which is why the Trina Panchamula is so often supplied four-fifths complete.

Darbha and Kusha are supplied for each other as a matter of routine, and because both belong to the same classical group the substitution passes unnoticed. The consequence is that a Trina Panchamula made up from the market is frequently four roots and a duplicate. Several other coarse grasses are collected as either.

Imperata cylindrica is the usual Darbha. Desmostachya bipinnata is Kusha, and the two names are used for each other constantly - but Sushruta lists Kusha and Darbha as separate members of Trina Panchamula, so they are two plants and not two names.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Imperata honours Ferrante Imperato, a Naples apothecary. Cylindrica, for the cylindrical flower spike. Darbha is from a root meaning to tie in a bunch, which is how the grass is gathered for both its uses.

Darbha is one of the five roots of Trina Panchamula in the Sushruta Samhita, named there separately from Kusha. That is what the tradition records.

• 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.