Dhanyaka

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Dhania

What the texts say Dhanyaka does

• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Pachana — digests ama (digestive)
• Trishnanigrahana — quenching thirst
• Mutrala — diuretic
• Jwaraghna — used in fever
• Rochana — improves taste and appetite

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

Side effects and limits

• Allergic reaction in those sensitive to Apiaceae
• Increased sensitivity of skin to sunlight, reported with handling the plant

Avoid or ask first: Known allergy to coriander or to other plants of the Apiaceae family.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Classical trishnahara and deepana.

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.

Four rasa, with ushna virya but — and this is the examinable detail — madhura vipaka, which is why it is used where pitta must not be aggravated despite an ushna dravya being wanted.

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.

Dhanyaka comes from dhanya, grain, because the dried fruit was stored and measured like grain in a household.

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.

Ground coriander is among the most bulked spices in the trade, commonly with husk, spent seed, bran and flour, because the powder is pale and forgiving of additions. Whole fruit is the safer purchase. Dyed material has also been found where a bright colour is wanted.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The dried fruit and the fresh leaf are used differently and the texts describe the fruit; the leaf is food more than dravya.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Coriandrum is from koris, a bedbug — the unripe fruit and the fresh leaf smell of it to a Greek nose. Sativum means sown, cultivated.

Dhanyaka is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and is recorded as tridoshahara and as acting on thirst. 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 fruit carries an essential oil that is largely linalool. The fresh leaf carries aldehydes quite different from the fruit, which is why the two smell nothing alike.

Grown as a crop: how to grow coriander, from sowing to harvest, in Laisha's grow guides.

• 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.