Shyonaka

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Sonapatha

What the texts say Shyonaka does

• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Shothahara — reduces swelling
• Vatahara — pacifies vata
• Jwaraghna — used in fever

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

Side effects and limits

• Digestive upset

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

One of the Dashamoola.

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

Oroxylum indicum root bark. The flavones are the accepted markers.

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 kashaya with madhura, 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.

Dirghavrinta means long-stalked and names the enormous compound leaf. The tree is recognised at a distance by its flat sword-shaped pods standing upright against the sky, which is why one English name for it is midnight horror.

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.

Unusually for Dashamoola there is no serious species confusion, because the genus holds one species and the tree is unmistakable. The substitution that does occur is stem bark sold as root bark, which is easier to collect and does not require digging, and which cannot be told apart once dried and cut.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The genus holds this one species, which makes it one of the few Dashamoola members with no name dispute at all. One of the ten roots, counted among the five great roots.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Oroxylum is oros (mountain) + xylon (wood). Indicum, of India. The enormous flat pods hanging from a bare tree are the field mark, and give it the name broken-bones tree.

Shyonaka is counted among the Brihat Panchamoola in the Sushruta Samhita and is recorded as deepana. 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 and seed carry flavonoids including baicalein, chrysin and oroxylin A. Content differs markedly between root bark, stem bark and seed.

• 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.