Shati

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Kapoor kachri

What the texts say Shati does

• Shwasahara — relieves breathlessness
• Kasahara — relieves cough
• Hikkanigrahana — relieves hiccups
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)

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

Side effects and limits

An aromatic rhizome in long use, including as an ingredient of Chyavanaprasha which is taken daily over long periods. No significant toxicity is recorded. Anyone pregnant, on medication or managing a diagnosed condition should speak to a doctor or a qualified practitioner first.

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 shwasa-kasa matra.

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

Hedychium spicatum rhizome. Kaempferia galanga and Curcuma zedoaria are both traded as kachri.

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.

Tikta and katu with ushna virya and katu vipaka. It is the classical dravya of the respiratory groups and heads the Hikkanigrahana mahakashaya.

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.

Karchura is shared with Curcuma zedoaria, and that shared paryaya is a standing source of confusion between the two.

Kaempferia galanga and Curcuma zedoaria are both traded as kachri or karchura and both are sold as Shati. All three are Zingiberaceae rhizomes with a strong aroma, so the smell does not distinguish them and the supplier has to.

Hedychium spicatum is the accepted Shati. Kaempferia galanga is sold under the same trade name kachri in north Indian markets and is a different genus with a different profile.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Hedychium is Greek hedys, sweet, and chion, snow — the white, sweetly scented flower. Spicatum, for the spike. The rhizome is burnt as incense as often as it is swallowed.

Shati heads the Hikkanigrahana and Shwasahara mahakashaya of the Charaka Samhita. That is what the tradition records and where it is set down.

• 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.