Jatiphala

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Jaiphal

What the texts say Jatiphala does

• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Nidrajanana — induces sleep
• Vrishya — aphrodisiac, supports reproductive vigour
• Rochana — improves taste and appetite
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)

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

Side effects and limits

• Dry mouth
• Drowsiness
• Digestive upset

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy, in medicinal quantity.; Use in children in medicinal quantity, other than under a qualified practitioner.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

The smallest matra in this library for a culinary spice, and deliberately so — myristicin is psychoactive and toxic at a few grams.

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, tikta and kashaya 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.

Madashaunda — that which intoxicates — is the paryaya that matters most, because the tradition named the effect described in the safety section below long before anyone measured it.

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.

Hollow or worm-eaten nutmegs are sold whole and are hard to judge from the outside; the traditional test is weight, since a sound nutmeg is dense and a spoiled one is light. Ground nutmeg is bulked with shell and with spent kernel. Myristica malabarica, the Bombay nutmeg, is a different species with a longer narrower seed and is substituted openly.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. One tree gives two dravya: the seed kernel is Jatiphala, nutmeg, and the red lacy aril around it is Jatipatri, mace. They have different properties and are not interchangeable.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Myristica is myristikos, fragrant for anointing. Fragrans says it again. Jati-phala means the noble fruit.

Jatiphala is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and is recorded as grahi and as bringing sleep. 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 kernel carries an essential oil containing myristicin and elemicin, along with fixed oil. Myristicin is the compound behind the effect described below.

Grown as a crop: how to grow nutmeg, 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.