Shatavari

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Satavar

What the texts say Shatavari does

• Rasayana — rejuvenative
• Balya — strengthening
• Stanyajanana — promotes breast milk
• Vrishya — aphrodisiac, supports reproductive vigour
• Chakshushya — good for the eyes
• Dahaprashamana — relieves burning

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

Side effects and limits

• Digestive heaviness
• Allergic reaction in those sensitive to asparagus

Avoid or ask first: Known allergy to asparagus or its relatives.; No other 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

Dugdha is the classical anupana for stanyajanana and for its use as a pitta-pacifying rasayana.

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

Other Asparagus species are widely substituted and are not distinguishable by eye once the root is peeled and dried.

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 predominant with tikta. Madhura rasa with sheeta virya and madhura vipaka is the combination the texts associate with its action on pitta.

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.

Shatavari and Shatamuli both describe the same feature — the hundred roots — and the name is read as a description of the plant's tuberous cluster.

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.

Other Asparagus species are collected and sold as shatavari across its range, and peeled bleached roots of unrelated plants also appear in loose markets. Because the root is usually sold peeled and dried, almost every distinguishing feature has been removed before a buyer sees it.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Several Asparagus species are collected and sold under the same vernacular names across India, and the roots are difficult to tell apart once dried and bleached.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Asparagus is the Greek asparagos. Racemosus means flowers in a raceme. Shatavari means she who has a hundred roots — and the tuberous cluster is exactly that.

Shatavari is classed among the rasayana and balya dravya and is described in the classical literature as a rasayana for women. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down; it is a record of practice, not a finding about what the root does in a body.

Constituents. The root carries steroidal saponins, known collectively as shatavarins, together with polysaccharides and mucilage. The mucilage content is part of why the root is described as guru and snigdha.

• 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.