Methika

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

What the texts say Methika does

• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Vatahara — pacifies vata
• Stanyajanana — promotes breast milk
• Balya — strengthening
• Vrishya — aphrodisiac, supports reproductive vigour
• Shothahara — reduces swelling

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

Side effects and limits

• Digestive upset and wind
• A maple-like smell in sweat and urine
• Allergic reaction in those sensitive to legumes

Avoid or ask first: Known allergy to peanut, chickpea or other legumes.; Pregnancy, in medicinal quantity.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Classical stanyajanana and vatahara use; the hypoglycaemic effect is real enough to matter alongside diabetes medicines.

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 and katu 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.

Bahuparni, many-leaved, describes the plant. Deepani names the action, which is the pattern across the kitchen dravya.

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.

Trigonella corniculata, kasuri methi, is a related species with a stronger aroma and is both sold honestly and substituted. Seed is sometimes bulked with the seed of other legumes of similar size. The leaf sold dried is frequently mixed with other dried greens.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. One of the few dravya in this library that is a field crop, a vegetable and a medicine at the same time.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Trigonella is little-triangle, for the triangular flower. Foenum-graecum means Greek hay — it was grown as fodder and smells of hay.

Methika is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu among the vegetables and is recorded as stanyajanana and vatahara. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the seed does in a body.

Constituents. The seed carries steroidal saponins including diosgenin, the alkaloid trigonelline, and a large amount of soluble fibre — the fibre is what makes soaked seed slimy and is a substantial part of the seed by weight.

Grown as a crop: how to grow fenugreek, 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.