Kantakari

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Kateli

What the texts say Kantakari does

• Kasahara — relieves cough
• Shwasahara — relieves breathlessness
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Pachana — digests ama (digestive)
• Jwaraghna — used in fever
• Vatahara — pacifies vata

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

Side effects and limits

• Burning sensation
• Digestive upset
• Mouth and throat irritation

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy.; Conditions aggravated by ushna and tikshna dravya, including acid dyspepsia.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

One of the Dashamoola; the classical kasahara of the pair with Brihati.

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

Solanum virginianum. The related Solanum species in the Brihati group carry differing alkaloid content, which is why the pair is examined together.

These are the marker and the identity test for this dravya, and they are not a test Laisha has run on anything. Laisha does not state the numeric limits here: the assay, ash and extractive figures must be read from the current edition of the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, because a wrong limit printed here is a number a laboratory would act on. The entries in this library that DO carry figures carry them because each one was checked.

Tikta and katu with ushna virya and katu vipaka — the profile the texts associate with its action on kapha and the breath.

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.

Kantakari means the thorny one and Duhsparsha means hard to touch: both name the prickles that cover stem and leaf. Kshudra, the small one, distinguishes it from Brihati, the large one, and the pair is always taught together.

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.

Solanum nigrum and other small solanums are collected with it. The confusion that matters for an examination is with Brihati, Solanum indicum, which is the large one of the pair — and Brihati has its own naming problem, set out in its entry. Once roots are dried and cut the two are hard to separate, and they are in any case both in Dashamoola, so the error is usually harmless in that formulation and not harmless anywhere else.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Solanum xanthocarpum and Solanum surattense are synonyms of this species and both names are common in Ayurvedic literature; they are not separate plants. One of the ten roots of Dashamoola.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Solanum, solace. Virginianum is a naming accident — it is not from Virginia. Kantakari means the thorny one, which is the honest description.

Kantakari is counted among the Laghu Panchamoola and is recorded throughout the classical literature as kasahara and shwasahara. 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 solasodine, along with steroidal saponins. Alkaloid content is highest in the unripe fruit.

• 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.