Lavanga

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Laung

What the texts say Lavanga does

• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Pachana — digests ama (digestive)
• Chhardinigrahana — relieves vomiting (anti-emetic)
• Trishnanigrahana — quenching thirst
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Mukhashodhana — cleans the mouth

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

Side effects and limits

• Mouth and gum irritation from the oil
• Burning sensation

Avoid or ask first: Clove oil in children, other than under medical direction.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Clove oil is a different preparation and has caused hepatotoxicity in children.

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 — and this is the point students get wrong — sheeta virya, despite the burning taste. Vipaka is katu.

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.

Devakusuma and Shriprasuna both call it a flower of the gods, which is what an imported and costly spice was to the people naming it.

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.

Spent cloves — those from which the oil has been distilled — are dried and mixed into whole clove, and they look almost right. The traditional test still works: a sound clove sinks in water or floats upright with the head up, while a spent one lies flat on the surface. Clove stems, a legitimate but much cheaper article, are also ground in.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Eugenia caryophyllata is a synonym. Native to the Moluccas, not to India, and its presence in the classical formularies marks how old the spice trade is.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Syzygium is syzygos, joined — the paired leaves. Aromaticum needs no help. The clove is the unopened flower bud, which is why aromaticum sits on a Syzygium.

Lavanga is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu among the aromatics and is recorded as acting on nausea and thirst. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the bud does in a body.

Constituents. The bud carries an essential oil that is mostly eugenol — among the highest proportions of a single compound in any spice, which is why clove oil is so strong.

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

• 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.