Prishniparni

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Pithavan

What the texts say Prishniparni does

• Balya — strengthening
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Shothahara — reduces swelling
• Vatahara — pacifies vata
• Jwaraghna — used in fever
• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool

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 and of the Laghu Panchamoola.

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

Uraria picta. Constantly interchanged with Shalaparni, its pair in the Dashamula.

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.

Madhura and tikta with ushna virya and madhura vipaka — the same profile as shalaparni, which is part of why the pair is treated as one in practice.

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.

Prishni means spotted or dappled and parni means leaved: the name describes the mottled leaf, which is the identifying feature and the reason the English name is painted-leaf uraria.

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.

This is the clearest example in Dashamoola of a name that means different plants in different places. In the north Prishniparni is Uraria picta. Across much of the south it is Pseudarthria viscida, and both usages are old and settled. Neither seller is lying. A student should know that a Dashamoola preparation made in Kerala and one made in Uttar Pradesh may not contain the same ten plants, and that this is documented rather than scandalous.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. One of the ten roots of Dashamoola, counted among the five lesser roots. In parts of the south Pseudarthria viscida is used under this name instead, and that substitution is discussed below.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Uraria is oura, a tail — the flower spike is a long soft tail. Picta means painted, for the variegated leaf. Prishni-parni means speckled-leaf, saying the same thing.

Prishniparni is counted among the Laghu Panchamoola in the Sushruta Samhita. 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 carries flavonoids and alkaloids. Composition differs between Uraria picta and Pseudarthria viscida, which is the practical consequence of the naming problem above.

• 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.