Nagakeshara

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Nagkesar

What the texts say Nagakeshara does

• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Raktastambhana — checks bleeding (haemostatic)
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Kandughna — relieves itching
• Swedahara — checks excessive sweating

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

Side effects and limits

• Digestive upset

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy, in medicinal quantity.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

The dried stamens are the drug. Mammea suriga is widely substituted.

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.

Kashaya and tikta with ushna virya and katu vipaka. Kashaya predominant, which is what the texts rely on for its grahi action.

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.

Kesara means stamen or filament and says exactly what the article is. Hema and Kanchana both mean gold and describe the colour of the dried stamens, which is also how adulteration is spotted.

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.

This is among the most adulterated dravya in the trade, because the article is a small quantity of dried stamens and is expensive. Ochrocarpus longifolius is sold as Nagakeshara openly and is sometimes called Pila Nagkesar. Dried stamens of other flowers, and simple dyed plant fibre, are also used. The dried stamen of Mesua ferrea has a distinct anther head on a fine filament, and a heap that is uniformly thread-like without anthers is not this dravya.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The fourth of the Chaturjata aromatics. A widely traded substitute, Ochrocarpus longifolius, is a different plant and is discussed below.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Mesua honours John Mesue. Ferrea means iron — the wood is so hard and heavy it sinks in water. Naga-keshara means serpent-stamen, for the mass of golden stamens.

Nagakeshara is named among the four aromatics of Chaturjata in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and is recorded as grahi. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the stamen does in a body.

Constituents. The stamens carry coumarins including mesuol and mammeisin, along with an essential oil.

• 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.