मधु
From Apis species and Trigona species — the classical texts distinguish eight varieties by the bee
Jangama · animal origin
TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS
Hindi name: Shahad
What the texts say Madhu does
What the evidence says. Honey has genuine modern evidence in wound care and in acute cough in children over one year. That evidence is for honey as such and does not extend to the classical claims about the eight varieties.
Side effects and limits
Honey must never be given to an infant under twelve months: Clostridium botulinum spores in honey cause infant botulism, which is documented and is fatal in some cases. This is the single most important line in this entry and it is a modern finding the classical texts could not have had.
Avoid or ask first: Infants under twelve months — absolute.; Diabetes, in medicinal quantity.; Heated madhu, per the classical prohibition.
A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.
A Samhita can only be read forwards, from the group to its members. This is the same list read backwards.
AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE
| Madhu | 10–20 ml |
| Anupana | Given as the anupana itself |
| Kala | Adhobhakta |
Two classical prohibitions that are still taught and still argued about: madhu is not to be heated, and madhu is not to be given with ghrita in EQUAL quantity. The second is specific — unequal quantities are used constantly, including in loha bhasma's own anupana.
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.
| Rasa | MadhuraKashaya |
| Guna | RukshaLaghuSukshma |
| Virya | Sheeta |
| Vipaka | Madhura |
| Doshakarma | Kaphapittahara and tridoshahara in small quantity. Yogavahi — it carries whatever it is given with. |
| Upayukta anga | Madhu, and never heated |
Madhu is classed among the jangama dravya.
| English | Honey |
| Hindi | Shahad |
| Kannada | Jenu |
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.
Sugar syrup is the commonest adulterant and is not detectable by taste. Commercial honey is often heated for filtering, which the texts treat as making it unfit.
From Apis species and Trigona species — the classical texts distinguish eight varieties by the bee. The stored honey.
A WAY TO REMEMBER IT
Madhu is one of the oldest words in the Indo-European family — it is the same root as mead, and as the Greek methu. The word for honey and the word for the drink made from it have travelled together for five thousand years.
Madhu is in a very large share of classical yogas, as a dravya and as the anupana. Charaka and Sushruta both give eight varieties by the bee that made it, with different properties for each.
Constituents. A product of Apis species and Trigona species — the classical texts distinguish eight varieties by the bee.
| Status | Honey has genuine modern evidence in wound care and in acute cough in children over one year. That evidence is for honey as such and does not extend to the classical claims about the eight varieties. |
| The honest gap | Mineral and animal dravya are far less studied than plant dravya, and what study exists is chiefly characterisation and toxicology rather than clinical efficacy. |
Honey must never be given to an infant under twelve months: Clostridium botulinum spores in honey cause infant botulism, which is documented and is fatal in some cases. This is the single most important line in this entry and it is a modern finding the classical texts could not have had.
| Contraindications | Infants under twelve months — absolute. Diabetes, in medicinal quantity. Heated madhu, per the classical prohibition. |
| Interactions | Antidiabetic medicines — honey raises blood glucose. Warfarin — a few case reports of altered INR with large quantities. Phenytoin — honey increased its absorption in a study. As a yogavahi it carries what it is given with, which is the classical statement of what a modern pharmacologist would call an absorption effect. |
| Pregnancy and breastfeeding | Ordinary quantities are unremarkable in pregnancy. The infant prohibition begins at birth and runs to twelve months. |