Katphala

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Kaiphal

What the texts say Katphala does

• Kaphaghna — pacifies kapha
• Shwasahara — relieves breathlessness
• Kasahara — relieves cough
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Vedanasthapana — relieves pain

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

Side effects and limits

• Gastric irritation with larger quantities

Avoid or ask first: No absolute contraindication is documented here. This is written deliberately rather than left blank.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Small quantity; classically used within compound preparations.

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

Myrica esculenta bark. Wild-collected from Himalayan populations under collection pressure.

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.

Katu, tikta and kashaya with ushna virya and katu vipaka — a warming astringent, which is why it sits in the kapha and the respiratory groups.

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.

The bark of several unrelated trees is sold as Kaiphal in north Indian markets, and the true article is now collected from wild Himalayan populations under pressure from that demand. The bark is aromatic and sharply astringent on chewing; a sample that is neither is not Katphala.

Myrica esculenta of the Himalaya is the pharmacopoeial Katphala. Myrica nagi is treated as a synonym in much of the Indian literature and as a separate Chinese species elsewhere, which is why the two names both appear.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Myrica is the Greek myrike, a fragrant shrub. Esculenta means edible, for the fruit — which is the part the name celebrates and the part medicine does not use.

Katphala is named in four of Charaka's mahakashaya and four of Sushruta's ganas, which is an unusually wide placement for a single bark. That is what the texts record and where.

• 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.