सैन्धव लवण
Sodium chloride, NaCl, as the mineral halite, with trace mineral impurities that give it its colour.
Parthiva · mineral origin · Lavana — the first of the five
SHODHANA — NO MINERAL DRAVYA IS USED RAW
Dissolved, filtered and recrystallised, or simply used as mined where the source is clean. It is the one mineral dravya that needs the least.
TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS
Hindi name: Sendha namak
What the texts say Saindhava Lavana does
What the evidence says. Salt's physiology is thoroughly established. No traditional claim beyond that is established for the mineral form specifically.
Side effects and limits
It is sodium chloride. Everything true of dietary salt in hypertension, heart failure and renal disease is true of it, and the mineral form changes nothing about that.
Avoid or ask first: Hypertension, heart failure, chronic kidney disease and any sodium-restricted diet.
A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.
A Samhita can only be read forwards, from the group to its members. This is the same list read backwards.
AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE
| Churna | 250 mg – 1 g |
| Anupana | Ushnodaka · Takra |
| Kala | Pragbhakta |
Present in Hingvashtaka churna and in a large share of deepana-pachana yogas. It is salt: the quantity is small because the diet already contains it.
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.
| Rasa | Lavana |
| Guna | LaghuSnigdhaSukshma |
| Virya | Sheeta |
| Vipaka | Madhura |
| Doshakarma | Tridoshahara — the only lavana said to be so, and the reason it is the lavana of choice. |
| Upayukta anga | Shuddha saindhava |
Saindhava Lavana is classed among the Lavana — the first of the five.
| English | Rock salt, halite |
| Hindi | Sendha namak |
| Kannada | Kallu uppu |
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.
| Hingvashtaka Churna | Among the eight dravya — the only lavana in the formula. |
Ordinary table salt is sold as sendha namak constantly. The colour is from trace iron and is not a purity marker either way.
Sodium chloride, NaCl, as the mineral halite, with trace mineral impurities that give it its colour.
A WAY TO REMEMBER IT
Saindhava is of the Sindhu — the salt from the Indus region, where the Khewra mines still are. The name is a place, which is why 'Himalayan pink salt' and saindhava are the same thing under two centuries of marketing.
Charaka names saindhava first among the five lavana and the texts treat it as the only tridoshahara salt. It is the salt of the classical kitchen and of the classical pharmacy alike.
Constituents. Sodium chloride, NaCl, as the mineral halite, with trace mineral impurities that give it its colour.
| Status | Salt's physiology is thoroughly established. No traditional claim beyond that is established for the mineral form specifically. |
| The honest gap | Mineral and animal dravya are far less studied than plant dravya, and what study exists is chiefly characterisation and toxicology rather than clinical efficacy. |
It is sodium chloride. Everything true of dietary salt in hypertension, heart failure and renal disease is true of it, and the mineral form changes nothing about that.
| Contraindications | Hypertension, heart failure, chronic kidney disease and any sodium-restricted diet. |
| Interactions | Antihypertensives — sodium opposes them. Lithium — sodium intake changes lithium clearance in both directions; a change in salt intake can move lithium toward toxicity or toward ineffectiveness. Corticosteroids — additive sodium and water retention. |
| Pregnancy and breastfeeding | Ordinary dietary quantities are unremarkable in pregnancy. Medicinal quantities on top of a normal diet are not established. |