Kakamachi

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Makoy

What the texts say Kakamachi does

• Shothahara — reduces swelling
• Rasayana — rejuvenative
• Kamalahara — used in jaundice (kamala)
• Vranaropana — heals wounds
• Mutrala — diuretic
• Nidrajanana — induces sleep

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

Side effects and limits

• Digestive upset
• Drowsiness

Avoid or ask first: Unripe green fruit, in any quantity.; Pregnancy, in medicinal quantity.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

The classical yakrit and shotha drug. Unripe berries have caused poisoning.

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.

Tikta, katu 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.

Kaka means crow and machi a fly: the small black fruits were read as crow-berries. Rasayani is the paryaya that records its standing as a rejuvenative despite being a common weed.

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.

The Solanum nigrum complex contains several closely related species and they are not reliably distinguished in the field or the market. This matters because glycoalkaloid content differs between them and with ripeness, so a plant eaten safely in one district may not be the same plant in another.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The Solanum nigrum complex is a group of closely related and much-confused species, and that is directly relevant to the safety of this plant.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Solanum, solace. Nigrum means black, for the ripe berry. Kaka-machi means crow's grape — the same berry, named by who eats it.

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

Constituents. The plant carries steroidal glycoalkaloids including solanine and solasonine, highest in the unripe green fruit and lowest in the ripe fruit and cooked leaf.

• 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.