Palasha

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Dhak

What the texts say Palasha does

• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Bhedana — breaks up hard, bound stool and expels it (purgative)
• Vranaropana — heals wounds
• Raktastambhana — checks bleeding (haemostatic)

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

Side effects and limits

• Nausea and vomiting
• Digestive upset
• Loose stool

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy.; Anyone trying to conceive, in light of the above.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

The SEED is the anthelmintic and is the part with the narrow matra; the gum is a stambhana.

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.

Katu, tikta and kashaya 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.

Kimshuka means what-parrot, from the flower's resemblance to a parrot's beak — the identification is in the name. Yajniya records its use in ritual; the wood is used for the sacred fire.

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.

Butea superba and Butea parviflora are collected and sold under the same name. The gum, Kamarkas, is adulterated with cheaper gums and with resin, which is hard to see in a dried lump.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The tree that turns whole forests orange in spring, and whose leaves are still stitched into plates across north India.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Butea honours the Earl of Bute. Monosperma means one-seeded — the pod holds a single seed. Palasha is the flame of the forest.

Palasha is named among the Krimighna dravya in the Charaka Samhita and described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu with its several parts distinguished. 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 palasonin and proteinaceous material; the flower carries butein and butin, which give the orange dye.

• 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.