Karpura

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Kapur

What the texts say Karpura does

• Dahaprashamana — relieves burning
• Vedanasthapana — relieves pain
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Mukhashodhana — cleans the mouth
• Vishaghna — antidote (against poison)
• Hridya — good for the heart

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

Side effects and limits

• Burning sensation
• Skin irritation
• Nausea

Avoid or ask first: Children — including keeping camphor tablets within reach.; Pregnancy and breastfeeding.; Application to broken skin.; and more below.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Neurotoxic — small ingested quantities have caused seizures in children. Never apply to an infant's nostrils.

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 madhura with sheeta virya and katu vipaka. The sheeta virya is the whole point of the dravya.

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.

Chandra, Hima and Sitabhra all mean moon, snow and frost — the paryaya describe the white crystalline appearance and the cooling sensation, which is its defining quality.

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.

This is the reverse of most entries: the adulterant is the norm. The white tablets sold in every Indian shop as kapur, burnt in worship, are synthetic camphor made from turpentine, and they are not the natural dravya the texts describe. Some are not camphor at all but naphthalene, which is a different and more toxic substance. Anyone using camphor medicinally needs to know which of the three they have, and the packet usually does not say.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The dravya is not the wood but the crystalline substance distilled from it. The same genus as cinnamon and tejpatra. Almost all camphor sold in India today is synthetic, made from turpentine, and that is the single most important practical fact in this entry.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Cinnamomum from the Greek kinnamomon. Camphora is from the Sanskrit karpura itself, through Arabic kafur. The species name IS the Sanskrit name.

Karpura heads its own varga in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the substance does in a body.

Constituents. Natural camphor is largely d-camphor, a bicyclic ketone. Synthetic camphor is a racemic mixture of the same compound.

• 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.