Karanja

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

What the texts say Karanja does

• Kushthaghna — used in skin disease
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Vranashodhana — cleans wounds
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Bhedana — breaks up hard, bound stool and expels it (purgative)
• Shothahara — reduces swelling

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

Side effects and limits

• Skin irritation on external use in some people
• Nausea and vomiting if swallowed

Avoid or ask first: Internal use without a qualified practitioner.; Pregnancy and breastfeeding.; Children.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Chiefly external in kushtha; the oil is the usual form and is not for internal use.

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.

Naktamala means night-garland, from the dense flowering. Chirabilva records that it grows along water, like bilva.

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.

Karanja oil is now a commodity for biodiesel and for soap, and industrial-grade oil — extracted with solvent rather than pressed — is sold where the medicinal grade is meant. Caesalpinia bonduc is called Lata Karanja and Holoptelea integrifolia is called Chirabilva, both of which share paryaya with this tree and are different plants.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Pongamia pinnata and Derris indica are synonyms, and Pongamia is the name most Ayurvedic and most agricultural literature uses. The same tree is now grown widely for biodiesel.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Millettia honours Charles Millett. Pinnata means the leaf is pinnate, in pairs along a stalk.

Karanja is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and is named among the dravya for the skin. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the oil does in a body.

Constituents. The seed carries flavonoids including karanjin and pongamol, and a fixed oil that is bitter and non-edible.

• 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.