Lodhra

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

What the texts say Lodhra does

• Raktastambhana — checks bleeding (haemostatic)
• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Vranaropana — heals wounds
• Chakshushya — good for the eyes
• Varnya — improves complexion
• Shothahara — reduces swelling

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

Side effects and limits

• Constipation from the tannins
• Digestive upset

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

The classical raktapradara and stambhana bark.

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

Symplocos racemosa bark. Several Symplocos species are traded together and the bark is difficult to separate on sight.

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.

Kashaya and tikta with sheeta 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.

The texts distinguish several lodhra — Shabara lodhra is generally taken to be this species and is the one used medicinally, while other kinds were dye materials.

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.

Symplocos species other than racemosa are collected and sold as lodhra, and because the tree is threatened and the bark is in constant demand for women's formulations, substitution is routine. Bark of unrelated astringent trees is also used, and once dried and cut, astringency is the only property most buyers test.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Assessed as threatened under collection pressure, and heavily substituted for that reason.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Symplocos is symploke, an interweaving — the stamens are joined at the base. Racemosa means the flowers are in a raceme.

Lodhra is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and named throughout the classical literature for bleeding. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the bark does in a body.

Constituents. The bark carries tannins in high proportion and the alkaloid loturine.

• 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.