Karavira

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Kaner

What the texts say Karavira does

• Kushthaghna — used in skin disease
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Vranashodhana — cleans wounds
• Vishaghna — antidote (against poison)

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

Side effects and limits

• Severe skin irritation on contact
• Nausea and vomiting — in this plant an early sign of poisoning, not a side effect

Avoid or ask first: Internal use of any kind, by anyone, in any quantity.; Self-treatment, absolutely.; Pregnancy and breastfeeding.; and more below.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Oleandrin is a cardiac glycoside. Every part is poisonous. Internal use only within a classical yoga after shodhana.

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.

Ashvamaraka and Hayamaraka both mean horse-killer. The tradition named this plant for what it does to a large animal that eats it, and a student should never need a second reminder.

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.

Nerium oleander and the yellow oleander, Cascabela thevetia, are both called Kaner in Indian markets and both are deadly, with different glycosides. That two poisons share a common name is the substitution problem here, and it matters because the poisoning picture and the treatment differ.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Classed among the sthavara visha, the poisons of plant origin, and among the upavisha. The two answer different questions: sthavara visha is the ORIGIN, against jangama visha of animal origin; upavisha is the GRADE in Rasashastra, the lesser poisons usable after shodhana, against the mahavisha. Planted as an ornamental on roadsides and in gardens across India, which is precisely what makes it dangerous — it is the most accessible deadly plant most people will ever walk past.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Nerium is neros, water — it grows along streams. Oleander is olea (olive) + dendron (tree), for the leaf shape. Kara-vira means the one that kills the hero: entirely poisonous.

Karavira is described in the Sushruta Samhita among the plant poisons and in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the root does in a body.

Constituents. Every part carries cardiac glycosides, chiefly oleandrin, which act on the heart in the same way digoxin does.

• 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.