Punarnava

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

What the texts say Punarnava does

• Shothahara — reduces swelling
• Mutrala — diuretic
• Rasayana — rejuvenative
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Hridya — good for the heart
• Raktavardhaka — increases blood (haematinic)

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

Side effects and limits

• Digestive upset
• Increased urine output, which is an expected action rather than only a side effect

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 shothahara matra; used in shotha with a watchful eye on any concurrent diuretic.

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

Trianthema portulacastrum is sold as shweta punarnava and is a different plant in a different family.

These are the pharmacopoeial limits for the article, not a test Laisha has run on anything. They are here so a practitioner can ask a supplier for a certificate of analysis and know what the numbers on it should say.

Madhura, tikta and kashaya with ushna virya and madhura 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.

Punarnava means renewed again: the plant dies back in the dry season and comes up again with the first rain, and Varshabhu — born of the rains — records the same thing. Shothaghni names the action the texts most associate with it.

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.

The texts describe two punarnava, rakta (red) and shweta (white). Rakta Punarnava is Boerhavia diffusa. Shweta Punarnava is generally taken to be Trianthema portulacastrum, which is in a different family entirely, and the two are collected together because they grow together in the same wet season ground. A prescription that says only punarnava does not say which, and a student should expect to be asked that.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Boerhavia repanda is treated as a synonym. The white-flowered Shweta Punarnava of the texts is generally taken to be Trianthema portulacastrum, a different family, and is discussed below.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Boerhavia honours Herman Boerhaave. Diffusa means spreading, which is how it sprawls. Punar-nava means renewed again: the plant dies back and returns with the rains, and that is the name.

Punarnava is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and is recorded throughout the classical literature as shothahara. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the plant does in a body.

Constituents. The root carries rotenoids including boeravinone compounds, along with punarnavine. Content varies with season, and the plant's own life cycle means material collected in the rains differs from material collected later.

• 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.