Udumbara

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Gular

What the texts say Udumbara does

• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Vranaropana — heals wounds
• Raktastambhana — checks bleeding (haemostatic)
• Varnya — improves complexion
• Dahaprashamana — relieves burning

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

Side effects and limits

• Constipation from the tannins
• Digestive upset
• Skin irritation from the latex

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 Kshiri Vriksha and of the Panchavalkala.

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.

Kashaya with madhura, sheeta 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.

Jantuphala, insect-fruit, records that the figs are always full of the tiny wasps that pollinate them — which is a botanical fact the tradition noticed and named.

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.

Bark of other Ficus species is used interchangeably, and as with vata the tradition uses the four together. The fruit is sometimes sold dried and bulked with other dried figs.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Ficus glomerata is a synonym. One of the four Kshiri Vriksha. The tree that fruits on its own trunk rather than its branches, which is how it is known at a glance.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Ficus racemosa: racemosa means the figs are borne in clusters directly on the trunk and branches, not in the leaf axils. The name tells you where to look for the fruit.

Udumbara is counted among the Nyagrodhadi gana in the Sushruta Samhita and described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. 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 tannins and sterols. The fruit carries sugars and fibre, and the latex carries enzymes.

• 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.