Patala

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Padri

What the texts say Patala does

• Shothahara — reduces swelling
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Vatahara — pacifies vata
• Jwaraghna — used in fever
• 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

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.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

One of the Dashamoola.

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.

Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, Part I

Stereospermum chelonoides. Several Stereospermum species are traded together and the root bark is the article.

These are the marker and the identity test for this dravya, and they are not a test Laisha has run on anything. Laisha does not state the numeric limits here: the assay, ash and extractive figures must be read from the current edition of the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, because a wrong limit printed here is a number a laboratory would act on. The entries in this library that DO carry figures carry them because each one was checked.

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.

Patala names the pale pink of the flower, and the colour itself is called patala in Sanskrit after it. Krishnavrinta, dark-stalked, is the identifying feature a collector uses.

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.

Stereospermum colais is collected and sold as Patala alongside Stereospermum chelonoides, and the two are difficult to separate once the root is dried and cut. As with shyonaka, stem bark is also sold in place of root bark because it can be taken without digging.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Stereospermum suaveolens is treated as a synonym of this species and is the name most Ayurvedic texts use; they are not two plants. Stereospermum colais is a separate species also traded under this name. The last of the ten roots of Dashamoola, counted among the five great roots.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Stereospermum is stereos (hard) + sperma (seed). Chelonoides means tortoise-like, for the shape of the calyx. Patala means pale pink, the flower colour.

Patala is counted among the Brihat Panchamoola in the Sushruta Samhita and is recorded as shothahara. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the root does in a body.

Constituents. The root and bark carry naphthoquinones including lapachol, along with iridoid glycosides.

• 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.