Plaksha

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Pakar

What the texts say Plaksha does

• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Vranaropana — heals wounds
• Raktastambhana — checks bleeding (haemostatic)
• Varnya — improves complexion
• Dahaprashamana — relieves burning

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

Side effects and limits

• Constipation from the tannins
• 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 Panchavalkala.

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, 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.

Pakari is the vernacular that became a paryaya. Unlike vata and ashvattha, plaksha has no paryaya that names a distinguishing feature — which is part of why its identity is the least settled of the four.

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.

Plaksha is the least settled of the four. Ficus lacor, Ficus virens and Ficus arnottiana are all used under the name in different regions, and because all four Kshiri Vriksha are used together anyway, the market has little reason to distinguish them. A student should be able to say that the group is settled even where its fourth member is not.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Ficus infectoria is a synonym used in much Ayurvedic literature. The fourth of the Kshiri Vriksha, and the one whose identity is least settled — Ficus virens and Ficus arnottiana are also used under this name.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Ficus, the fig. Lacor is from the Hindi-Bengali name for the tree.

Plaksha is counted among the Nyagrodhadi gana in the Sushruta Samhita and described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the bark does in a body.

Constituents. The bark carries tannins and sterols, in the same broad pattern as the other three.

• 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.