Nimbuka

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

What the texts say Nimbuka does

• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Pachana — digests ama (digestive)
• Ruchya — improves taste
• Chhardinigrahana — relieves vomiting (anti-emetic)
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Vatanulomana — moves vata downward, relieves wind

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

Side effects and limits

• Acidity and heartburn
• Tooth enamel erosion
• Increased sensitivity of skin to sunlight after handling the peel

Avoid or ask first: Acid dyspepsia and peptic ulcer, in medicinal quantity.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Chiefly a deepana and an anupana in its own right.

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.

A single rasa, amla, with ushna virya and amla vipaka — the standard example of amla rasa in teaching.

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.

Dantashatha, tooth-blunting, is the paryaya a student should enjoy: the tradition named the sensation acid leaves on the teeth, which is also the modern caution about enamel.

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.

Bottled lime juice is commonly diluted and preserved, and synthetic citric acid is sold as lime concentrate. For medicinal use the tradition means fresh juice, and a preserved product is a different article.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Distinguished in the texts from Matulunga, the citron, and from Jambira, which is generally taken to be the lemon.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Citrus, the citron. Aurantiifolia means orange-leaved — the leaf looks like an orange's. This is the lime.

Nimbuka is described in the Charaka Samhita among the fruits and in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the juice does in a body.

Constituents. The juice carries citric acid and vitamin C. The rind carries an essential oil with limonene and furocoumarins.

• 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.