Snuhi

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Sehund

What the texts say Snuhi does

• Bhedana — breaks up hard, bound stool and expels it (purgative)
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Kushthaghna — used in skin disease
• Shothahara — reduces swelling
• Vishaghna — antidote (against poison)

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

Side effects and limits

• Severe skin blistering on contact
• Burning of the mouth and gut
• Violent purgation

Avoid or ask first: Self-treatment, absolutely.; Internal use of raw or unpurified latex, by anyone.; Pregnancy and breastfeeding.; and more below.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Among the upavisha. The latex is a severe irritant and a drastic purgative; chiefly external, and internal use is specialist.

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.

A single rasa, katu, 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.

Vajri, the thunderbolt one, names the ridged angular stem. Samantadugdha, milky all over, names the latex that runs from any cut.

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 Euphorbia species with similar angular stems are used interchangeably, and they vary in the strength of their latex. Because the plant is a free hedge plant there is little economic incentive to substitute; the risk is the plant itself rather than what replaces it.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Classed among the upavisha. The latex is a caustic and is the reason this plant is planted as a living fence — cattle will not touch it.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Euphorbia honours Euphorbus, physician to a Numidian king. Neriifolia means Nerium-leaved — the leaf looks like an oleander's. A cactus-like Euphorbia wearing an oleander's leaf.

Snuhi is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu, where its caustic nature is noted. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the latex does in a body.

Constituents. The latex carries diterpene esters of the phorbol type, which are the irritant principle and are also known tumour promoters in laboratory models.

• 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.