Kadamba

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

What the texts say Kadamba does

• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Stambhana — astringent, checks discharge
• Vranaropana — heals wounds
• Dahaprashamana — relieves burning
• Stanyajanana — promotes breast milk
• Jwaraghna — used in fever

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

Side effects and limits

• Constipation from the tannins
• Digestive upset

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Chiefly used as a kashaya in stambhana.

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.

Kashaya and tikta with madhura, sheeta 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.

Vrittapushpa, round-flowered, names the ball of flowers that no other Indian tree produces. Halipriya, dear to the plough, records that it was planted at field edges.

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.

Mitragyna parvifolia is called Kadamba in parts of India and is a different genus of the same family; Haldina cordifolia is also traded under the name. The three are used somewhat interchangeably, and because all are Rubiaceae with astringent barks, a dried sample does not separate them.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Anthocephalus cadamba and Anthocephalus chinensis are synonyms and are the names most Ayurvedic literature uses. The tree of Krishna's Vrindavan, and the state tree of Madhya Pradesh.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Neolamarckia is the new Lamarckia, honouring Lamarck. Cadamba is the Sanskrit name kept as the epithet.

Kadamba is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and is named in the classical literature as grahi. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the bark does in a body.

Constituents. The bark carries indole alkaloids including cadambine, along with tannins and saponins.

• 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.