Eranda

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Arandi

What the texts say Eranda does

• Virechana — purgative
• Vatahara — pacifies vata
• Shothahara — reduces swelling
• Vedanasthapana — relieves pain
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)

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

Side effects and limits

• Griping and abdominal cramp
• Diarrhoea
• Nausea

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy — absolutely.; Intestinal obstruction, appendicitis, or undiagnosed abdominal pain.; Inflammatory bowel disease.; and more below.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Eranda mula is the vatahara agrya; eranda taila is the vrishya-virechana agrya. Different parts, different actions, constantly conflated.

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

Ricinus communis. The seed itself contains ricin, which the cold-pressed and heat-treated oil does not; that distinction is a safety matter, not a quality one.

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.

Madhura, katu and kashaya with ushna virya and madhura vipaka. The madhura vipaka is what allows a purgative to be used without the dryness most purgatives bring.

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.

Panchangula, five-fingered, describes the palmate leaf and is the identification. Vatari, enemy of vata, names the action the texts value it for above all.

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.

Castor oil is adulterated with cheaper vegetable oils, and industrial-grade castor oil — pressed and refined for machinery and lamps rather than for use in the body — is sold where the medicinal grade is meant. The two are made differently and the industrial article is not intended for anyone to swallow.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The seed of this plant contains ricin, among the most poisonous substances known. The oil pressed from it does not, because ricin does not pass into the oil. That single distinction is the whole of this entry's safety section and a student must be able to state it.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Ricinus is Latin for a sheep-tick, which the seed looks exactly like — mottled, swollen, oval. Communis means common.

Charaka names eranda taila the foremost dravya for vata, and it is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the oil does in a body.

Constituents. The oil is largely ricinoleic acid, which is what makes it purgative. The seed additionally contains ricin, a toxin that remains in the pressed cake and does not pass into the oil.

Grown as a crop: how to grow castor, 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.