Patra

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Tejpatta

What the texts say Patra does

• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Pachana — digests ama (digestive)
• Kaphaghna — pacifies kapha
• Mukhashodhana — cleans the mouth
• Hridya — good for the heart

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

Side effects and limits

• Digestive irritation in quantity

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 Trijata and Chaturjata groups with twak and ela.

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.

Katu 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.

The bare name Patra — simply leaf — is what the classical formulations use, and a student is expected to know that in Chaturjata and in Sitopaladi, Patra means this leaf and no other.

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.

Laurus nobilis, the European bay, is sold as tejpatra in cities and is a different genus with a different aroma. The three-veined leaf is the test and it is easy. Leaves of other Cinnamomum species are also collected, and leaves that have lost their aroma with age are bulked in with fresh.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. This is not the bay leaf of European cooking, which is Laurus nobilis, a different genus — the two are sold under the same English name and are not interchangeable in a formulation.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Cinnamomum, from kinnamomon. Tamala is the Sanskrit tamala Latinised. Teja-patra means sharp leaf, and the Latin keeps the Sanskrit whole.

Patra is named among the four aromatics of Chaturjata in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the leaf does in a body.

Constituents. The leaf carries an essential oil whose composition varies by population — some chemotypes are rich in eugenol, others in cinnamaldehyde or linalool. Two honest samples can smell quite different.

• 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.