Langali

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Kalihari

What the texts say Langali does

• Shothahara — reduces swelling
• Vedanasthapana — relieves pain
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Kushthaghna — used in skin disease
• Lekhana — scraping, reduces excess tissue and fat

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
• Vomiting and diarrhoea — in this plant the first phase of poisoning, not a side effect

Avoid or ask first: Internal use of any kind, by anyone, in any quantity.; Self-treatment, absolutely.; Pregnancy — the paryaya Garbhapatani names why.; and more below.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Colchicine-bearing and among the upavisha. Chiefly external. A classical garbhapatani — absolutely contraindicated in pregnancy.

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 and tikta 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.

Agnishikha, flame-crest, describes the red and yellow flower. Garbhapatani — that which causes abortion — is the paryaya that records the use and the danger in one word, and it is the one a student must not forget.

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 tuber is V-shaped and distinctive, but dried and cut it resembles other tubers and has been mistaken for edible yam and for ativisha — both mistakes have killed people. Because colchicine is a commercially valuable compound the plant is also collected heavily for the pharmaceutical trade.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Classed among the sthavara visha, and among the upavisha. The two answer different questions and are both right: sthavara visha is the ORIGIN — a poison of plant origin, against jangama, of animal origin — while upavisha is the GRADE in Rasashastra, the lesser poisons usable after shodhana, against the mahavisha. Laisha's Rasashastra manual lists it under upavisha for that reason. The state flower of Tamil Nadu and the national flower of Zimbabwe, and one of the most reliably lethal plants in India.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Gloriosa means glorious, for the flame-coloured flower. Superba says it twice. Remember the pairing: the most beautiful name in the materia medica sits on one of the most lethal plants in it.

Langali 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 tuber does in a body.

Constituents. Every part carries colchicine and related alkaloids. Colchicine is a mitotic poison and is also a prescription medicine for gout, with a famously narrow margin between a dose that works and a dose that kills.

• 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.