Shirisha

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Siris

What the texts say Shirisha does

• Vishaghna — antidote (against poison)
• Kushthaghna — used in skin disease
• Shothahara — reduces swelling
• Kandughna — relieves itching
• Shwasahara — relieves breathlessness
• Vranaropana — heals wounds

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

Side effects and limits

• Digestive upset
• Nausea from the saponins

Avoid or ask first: Use in place of emergency treatment for poisoning or snakebite, absolutely.; Pregnancy.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

The vishaghna agrya of Charaka Sutrasthana 25. The Su.4 vishaghna mahakashaya is headed by Haridra — a different claim.

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.

Tikta, kashaya and madhura with anushna 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.

Vishaghna as a paryaya is the tradition naming the plant for its chief use. Mridupushpa, soft-flowered, describes the powder-puff flower heads that identify every Albizia.

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 Albizia species — Albizia procera, Albizia odoratissima — are collected and sold as shirisha and are difficult to tell apart once the bark is dried and cut.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Ayurveda names this the foremost vishaghna dravya — the first thing reached for against poison — which makes the safety note below unusually important to state plainly.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Albizia honours Filippo degli Albizzi. Lebbeck is from the Arabic name. The pod rattles in the wind, which is why English calls it the woman's-tongue tree.

Shirisha is named in the Charaka Samhita among the dravya acting against poison, and in the Sushruta Samhita's chapters on poisoning. 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 bark carries saponins and tannins; the seed carries lectins.

• 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.