Kampillaka

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Kamala

What the texts say Kampillaka does

• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Rechana — purgative
• Kushthaghna — used in skin disease
• Vranashodhana — cleans wounds
• Raktashodhana — purifies the blood

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

Side effects and limits

• Griping and abdominal cramp
• Nausea and vomiting
• Severe diarrhoea in quantity

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy.; Children and the frail.; Intestinal obstruction or undiagnosed abdominal pain.; and more below.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

The red glandular powder from the fruit surface. Purgative and anthelmintic; the matra is small.

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 and tikta 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.

Raktanga, red-bodied, names the powder. Rechi names the action — it is a purgative — which is the paryaya a student should connect to its use.

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.

Because the article is a loose red powder, it is among the easiest in the materia medica to adulterate: brick dust, red ochre, sand and synthetic dyes have all been found in commercial kampillaka. Genuine powder floats on water and burns cleanly; the mineral adulterants sink and leave ash. This is a test a student can do with a glass of water.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The dravya is not a plant part in the usual sense but the red glandular powder brushed off the surface of the fruit.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Mallotus is mallotos, woolly. Philippensis, of the Philippines, where the type was collected. The red glandular powder on the fruit is the dravya.

Kampillaka is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and its use against worms is recorded there. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the powder does in a body.

Constituents. The powder carries rottlerin and related phloroglucinol derivatives, which are the active and the irritant principle both.

• 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.