Patha

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

What the texts say Patha does

• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Pachana — digests ama (digestive)
• Vedanasthapana — relieves pain
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Jwaraghna — used in fever

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

Side effects and limits

• Gastric irritation reported with prolonged use

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

The classical grahi matra.

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

Cissampelos pareira root. Cyclea peltata is the accepted article in Kerala practice and carries a different alkaloid profile.

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 with ushna virya and katu vipaka. It is a bitter that warms, which is why it sits in the digestive and the grahi groups rather than the cooling ones.

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.

Ambashtha is the name Sushruta's Ambashthadi gana is built on, which is why Patha and Ambashtha resolve to one dravya in the gana lists.

Cyclea peltata is the standing substitution and in Kerala practice it is the accepted article rather than a substitute. Stephania japonica is also traded as Patha. All three are Menispermaceae with similar cross-sections, so the root alone does not settle it and the source has to be known.

Cissampelos pareira is the accepted Patha of the pharmacopoeia. Cyclea peltata is used as Patha across much of south India and Kerala, and both are Menispermaceae with similar roots. This is a live regional divergence, not an error by either side.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Cissampelos is Greek kissos, ivy, and ampelos, a vine — a climber that looks like both. Pareira comes from the Portuguese trade name pareira brava, wild vine. Patha means one that reads or recites, and the shield-shaped leaf is the recognition character.

Patha heads the Ambashthadi gana of the Sushruta Samhita and is named among the Trptighna mahakashaya of the Charaka Samhita. That is what the tradition holds and where it is set down.

• 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.