Haritaki

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Harad

What the texts say Haritaki does

• Anulomana — moves contents downward, mild laxative
• Rasayana — rejuvenative
• Medhya — supports intellect and memory
• Chakshushya — good for the eyes
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Pachana — digests ama (digestive)
• Lekhana — scraping, reduces excess tissue and fat

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

Side effects and limits

• Loose stools
• Abdominal discomfort or griping
• Dry mouth from the tannins

Avoid or ask first: The classical texts advise against it in pregnancy, in severe depletion and in extreme exhaustion. This is recorded as what the texts say.; No absolute contraindication beyond those 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

The ritu-wise anupana is the classical rule and is examinable; Haritaki is contraindicated in emaciation, exhaustion and pregnancy.

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

Pericarp only, seed removed. Seed in the sample lowers the tannin figure and raises the ash, and is the commonest adulteration of Triphala.

These are the pharmacopoeial limits for the article, not a test Laisha has run on anything. They are here so a practitioner can ask a supplier for a certificate of analysis and know what the numbers on it should say.

Five rasa, lavana absent — the same omission as amalaki, and the two are regularly asked together. Kashaya predominates here where amla predominates in amalaki.

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.

Abhaya means fearless, Pathya means wholesome or fit for the path of treatment. Bhavaprakasha opens its first varga with this dravya, and the varga is named after it — Haritakyadi.

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. Where an exact verse number could not be confirmed this library names the section instead of inventing one.

The seven classical varieties are not interchangeable and are regularly substituted for one another in the market, since they are hard to tell apart once dried and impossible once powdered. Immature fruit is also sold as mature. The most consequential substitution is a powder milled with the seed included, which raises weight and lowers the proportion of the pericarp that is actually the dravya. Buying the whole deseeded fruit is the only way a buyer can check any of this by eye.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 97 per cent confidence as Terminalia chebula Retz. in Combretaceae. Its two Triphala companions are a different genus and a different family in one case: bibhitaki is Terminalia bellirica, the same genus, while amalaki is Phyllanthus emblica in Phyllanthaceae. Three fruits, two families.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Terminalia, leaves at the end. Chebula is from Kabul — the Persian halilaj-i-kabuli, the Kabuli myrobalan. Haritaki is named for Hari and for its green colour.

Haritaki is the first dravya of the Haritakyadi Varga in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and one of the three fruits of Triphala. Ayurveda classes it among the rasayana and describes an anulomana action. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down; it is a description of a long and continuing practice, not a finding about what the fruit does in a body.

Constituents. The pericarp is rich in hydrolysable tannins, including chebulinic and chebulagic acid, together with gallic and ellagic acid derivatives. Tannin content varies with variety, maturity at picking and drying, which is part of why the classical texts distinguish the varieties at all.

• 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.
• 1 photograph(s) were removed from this entry because they showed the wrong plant — the uploader's own note says the file was corrected to Terminalia bellirica, which is bibhitaki, not haritaki. A library whose purpose is identification cannot illustrate a dravya with a different species.