Parpata

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Pitpapra

What the texts say Parpata does

• Jwaraghna — used in fever
• Dahaprashamana — relieves burning
• Trishnanigrahana — quenching thirst
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Raktashodhana — purifies the blood

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

Side effects and limits

• Digestive upset
• Drowsiness
• Dryness from its ruksha nature

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

One of the six of Shadanga Paniya, the classical jwarahara phanta.

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 kashaya with sheeta 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.

Sukshmapatra, fine-leaved, names the feathery foliage. Renu and Pamsu both mean dust, describing how the dried herb crumbles.

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.

Three plants are sold as Parpata across India: Fumaria species in the north, Oldenlandia corymbosa in the south, and Rungia repens in parts of the west. They are in different families. As with Rasna and Shankhapushpi, the honest answer to what Parpata is begins with where you are standing.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Fumaria parviflora and Fumaria vaillantii are also used under this name, and in south India Oldenlandia corymbosa is used as Parpata instead — three genera in two families, set out below.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Fumaria is from fumus, smoke — the grey-green foliage looks like smoke rising from the ground, and the crushed plant was said to smell of it. Indica, of India.

Parpata is named in the Charaka Samhita among the dravya used in fever and described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the herb does in a body.

Constituents. Fumaria carries isoquinoline alkaloids including protopine and fumaric acid. Oldenlandia, used under the same name, carries a quite different chemistry.

• 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.