मूर्वा
Marsdenia tenacissima (Roxb.) Moon
Apocynaceae · Marsdenia
One name, more than one plant
Murva is one of the genuinely unsettled identities in Dravyaguna. Marsdenia tenacissima is the pharmacopoeial article; Chonemorpha fragrans, Sansevieria roxburghiana and Clematis species are all used as Murva in different regions. A paper asking for the source of Murva is asking about a real disagreement, not a fact.
TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS
Hindi name: Murhari
What the texts say Murva does
What the evidence says. Traditional use is long recorded. Modern clinical evidence is limited.
Side effects and limits
The safety of Murva cannot be stated cleanly, because the name covers at least four different plants in current use. Sansevieria in particular contains saponins and is a different kind of material from the Marsdenia climber. This is a dravya where knowing the botanical source is a safety question and not a scholarly one. Anyone pregnant, on medication or managing a diagnosed condition should speak to a doctor or a qualified practitioner first.
Avoid or ask first: No absolute contraindication is documented here. This is written deliberately rather than left blank.
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.
No verified photograph of Marsdenia tenacissima could be found in the free image commons. Photographs published under the name Murva are of other species in the same genus, and a picture of the wrong plant in a botanical reference is worse than no picture at all — so this entry carries none. That absence is itself information: this is a dravya the texts name freely and that almost nobody has photographed.
AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE
| Churna | 3–6 g |
| Kwatha | 50–100 ml |
| Anupana | Ushnodaka |
| Kala | Adhobhakta |
On the pharmacopoeial identification. A different botanical source is a different drug.
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 | TiktaKashayaMadhura |
| Guna | LaghuRuksha |
| Virya | Sheeta |
| Vipaka | Katu |
| Prabhava | Named in the texts for prameha and for the skin, and it appears in four of the Sushruta ganas under the name Morata. |
| Doshakarma | Tridoshahara. |
Tikta, kashaya and madhura with sheeta virya and katu vipaka, on the pharmacopoeial identification. A different botanical source would give a different profile, which is the practical consequence of the identity problem.
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.
| Upayukta anga | Mula (the root) |
| Why it matters | The root of the climber. Where Sansevieria is used the article is a leaf fibre plant, which is not the same kind of material at all. |
Morata is the form Sushruta's ganas use, which is why Murva and Morata resolve to one dravya in the gana lists.
| English | Rajmahal hemp |
| Hindi | Murhari |
| Kannada | Maddinabuduru |
| Tamil | Maruvam |
| Telugu | Murva |
| Malayalam | Murva |
| Marathi | Moravel |
| Gujarati | Maghavel |
| Bengali | Murva |
| Odia | Murba |
| Urdu | Murva |
| Murvadi Kwatha | Named for the dravya. |
| Mahatiktaka Ghrita | An ingredient. |
This is less an adulteration problem than an unsettled identification. Marsdenia tenacissima, Chonemorpha fragrans, Sansevieria roxburghiana and several Clematis species are each used as Murva with regional authority behind them. A practitioner should know which plant their supplier means, because these are not variants of one drug but four different plants sharing a name.
Murva is one of the genuinely unsettled identities in Dravyaguna. Marsdenia tenacissima is the pharmacopoeial article; Chonemorpha fragrans, Sansevieria roxburghiana and Clematis species are all used as Murva in different regions. A paper asking for the source of Murva is asking about a real disagreement, not a fact.
A WAY TO REMEMBER IT
Marsdenia honours William Marsden. Tenacissima means very tenacious, for the fibre — the plant was grown for bowstrings, which is what Rajmahal hemp records. Murva is the classical name for the bowstring itself.
Murva is named as Morata and as Murva across four ganas of the Sushruta Samhita and among the Trptighna mahakashaya of the Charaka Samhita. What the texts held it to be botanically is exactly what is no longer settled.
| Status | Traditional use is long recorded. Modern clinical evidence is limited. |
| Suggested | The dravya holds a pharmacopoeial monograph in India, which records an accepted identity and quality standard for the article. That is a standard for the material, not evidence of an effect in a body. |
| Not established | There is not enough good clinical evidence to establish an effect on any named health condition. Long traditional use is not a substitute for that evidence, and this library does not present it as one. |
| The honest gap | Published work on this dravya rarely records the origin or the standard of the material tested, so results cannot be attributed to a defined article. |
The safety of Murva cannot be stated cleanly, because the name covers at least four different plants in current use. Sansevieria in particular contains saponins and is a different kind of material from the Marsdenia climber. This is a dravya where knowing the botanical source is a safety question and not a scholarly one. Anyone pregnant, on medication or managing a diagnosed condition should speak to a doctor or a qualified practitioner first.
| Contraindications | No absolute contraindication is documented here. This is written deliberately rather than left blank. |
| Interactions | No specific drug interaction is documented for this dravya. That is the honest state of the evidence, not a statement that none exists — most Ayurvedic dravya have never been studied for interaction with modern medicines at all. |
| Pregnancy and breastfeeding | Safety in pregnancy has not been established, and it cannot be meaningfully assessed while the botanical source is unsettled. |