Khadira

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Khair

What the texts say Khadira does

• Kushthaghna — used in skin disease
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Raktashodhana — purifies the blood
• Dantya — good for the teeth
• Vranaropana — heals wounds
• Medohara — reduces fat

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

Side effects and limits

• Constipation and dryness
• Digestive upset
• Staining of the mouth and teeth

Avoid or ask first: Conditions aggravated by ruksha dravya, in prolonged use.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Heads the Kushthaghna dashemani. The heartwood extract (khadira saara, catechu) is the concentrated form.

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 and kashaya with sheeta virya and katu vipaka. Kashaya predominant, and it is the standard example of a kashaya dravya in Dravyaguna.

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.

Dantadhavana, tooth-cleaning, records the use of the twig as a brush. Raktasara, red essence, names the colour of the heartwood and of the extract.

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.

Extract of other Senegalia and Acacia species is sold as katha, and because the article is a dried brown block the substitution is hard to see. Commercial katha for paan is a food article rather than a medicinal one and is frequently bulked with starch, clay and colour. Areca catechu, the areca nut, is confusingly also called catechu in some contexts and is an unrelated plant with a very different safety picture.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Acacia catechu is a synonym and is the name almost all Ayurvedic literature uses; the genus was split and the plant did not change.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Senegalia is for Senegal, where the genus was split from Acacia. Catechu is from the Malay kachu, the extract itself — the source of the word catechin.

Khadira is named in the Charaka Samhita as foremost among dravya for the skin, and is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the wood does in a body.

Constituents. The heartwood and extract carry catechins and tannins in high proportion, which is what makes them astringent and what gives the extract its use as a tanning and dyeing material.

• 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.