Shigru

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Sahjan

What the texts say Shigru does

• Shothahara — reduces swelling
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Lekhana — scraping, reduces excess tissue and fat
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Vranashodhana — cleans wounds
• Vidradhihara — used in vidradhi (abscess)

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

Side effects and limits

• Digestive upset
• Burning sensation
• Loose stool from the leaf in quantity

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy, as regards the root bark and seed absolutely.; Breastfeeding, as regards the root bark.

A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Root bark and seed are different drugs with different matra; the root bark of true Moringa is not the same as the commonly substituted Moringa concanensis.

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

Moringa oleifera. Root bark and seed differ substantially and are not interchangeable.

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.

Katu and tikta with ushna virya and katu 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.

Tikshnagandha names the sharp smell of the root, which is like horseradish and is where the English name horseradish tree comes from. Shobhanjana is the paryaya the texts use most.

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.

Moringa concanensis and other Moringa species are collected as shigru. The substitution that matters is the same one as with bilva and gambhari: stem bark sold as root bark, because stem bark can be had without killing the tree. Given that the root bark carries the alkaloids described below and the stem bark carries them differently, this is not a harmless swap in either direction.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. A dravya, a vegetable and a field crop at once, and among the very few plants in this library that a household may be growing already.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Moringa is from the Tamil-Malayalam murungai. Oleifera means oil-bearing: oleum + fero. The seed gives ben oil, and the Latin records it.

Shigru is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu among the vegetables and is recorded as shothahara. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the bark does in a body.

Constituents. The root bark carries alkaloids including spirochin and moringine, along with glucosinolates that give it its sharp smell. The leaf is nutritionally dense and is a quite different article.

Grown as a crop: how to grow moringa, from sowing to harvest, in Laisha's grow guides.

• 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.