Kumari

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Gwarpatha

What the texts say Kumari does

• Bhedana — breaks up hard, bound stool and expels it (purgative)
• Rasayana — rejuvenative
• Chakshushya — good for the eyes
• Vrishya — aphrodisiac, supports reproductive vigour
• Shothahara — reduces swelling

What the evidence says. Modest for topical gel; limited for oral use; and one serious warning that outweighs both.

Side effects and limits

• Abdominal pain, from oral aloe latex
• Cramps, from oral aloe latex
• Diarrhoea, from oral aloe latex

Avoid or ask first: Do not take aloe latex by mouth.; Treat any whole-leaf oral product with caution, given the IARC classification.; Children under 12 — contraindicated for aloe laxative preparations under the EMA monograph.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

The dried latex (ghana) and the fresh gel are different drugs with a tenfold difference in strength. The latex is the anthraquinone-bearing, laxative, EU-restricted one.

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 with madhura. The katu vipaka with sheeta virya is what the texts credit for its action on pitta.

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.

Kumari means a young girl, and Kanya the same. The texts read the name as describing the plant's association with youth; Sthuladala simply describes the thick leaf.

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.

The distinction that matters here is not between species but between two quite different articles from one leaf: the clear inner gel and the bitter yellow latex just under the skin. They are not the same material, they do not behave the same way, and a preparation made without separating them contains both. Several Aloe species are also collected and sold interchangeably, and dried exudate from any of them looks alike.

Matched to the accepted name in the GBIF backbone at 97% confidence. Products are also sold under Aloe barbadensis, Aloe africana and Aloe arborescens — the first is an older name for the same plant, the others are different species.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Aloe is from Arabic alloeh, a bitter shining substance. Vera means true, distinguishing it from the many other aloes. Kumari means young girl.

Aloe appears in Ayurveda as kumari, and splitting a leaf to put the gel on a burn or a scrape is one of the most widespread household practices there is. That is what the tradition holds and what households do; neither is a finding about what the plant does in a body.

Grown as a crop: how to grow aloe vera, from sowing to harvest, in Laisha's grow guides.

• No dose is given, here or anywhere in this library.
• Nothing here is a recommendation to take aloe internally. The evidence that exists is mostly about gel on skin.
• Where a finding concerns the gel and a risk concerns the latex or the whole leaf, this entry says which — because a label often will not.