Ushira

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Khus

What the texts say Ushira does

• Daha prashamana — relieves burning
• Trishna nigrahana — relieves thirst
• Jwaraghna — used in fever
• Stambhana — astringent, checks discharge
• Mutrala — diuretic
• Varnya — improves complexion

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

Side effects and limits

Widely used in food, drink and cosmetics as well as medicine, with no significant toxicity recorded. The practical problem is adulteration with spent root from the perfume industry rather than harm. Anyone pregnant, on medication or managing a diagnosed condition should speak to a doctor or a qualified practitioner first.

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

The classical daha-trishna matra.

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

Chrysogon zizanioides root. Spent root left after oil distillation passes every identity test and has no oil, so the oil content is the test that matters.

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 madhura with sheeta virya and katu vipaka. It is the cooling drug of the summer preparations and of Shadanga Paniya.

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.

Virana names the grass; Ushira names its root. The distinction is the one a paper question turns on.

The roots of other aromatic grasses, particularly Cymbopogon species, are traded as khus, and spent root left after the essential oil has been distilled is sold on as the whole article. Spent root looks correct and smells of almost nothing, which is the check: the dravya is bought for an aroma, so a sample without one has already been used.

Long published as Vetiveria zizanioides; Chrysopogon is the accepted genus in the current backbone, and both names appear in the pharmacopoeial and trade literature. A student meeting Vetiveria in an older textbook is meeting the same grass.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Chrysopogon is Greek chrysos, gold, and pogon, a beard — the golden bearded flower spike. Zizanioides means resembling Zizania, wild rice. The root is woven into screens that are wetted so the hot wind arrives cooled, which is the same karma the texts give it.

Ushira is named among the Dahaprashamana and Jwarahara mahakashaya of the Charaka Samhita and is one of the six dravya of Shadanga Paniya. That is what the tradition holds and where it is recorded.

Grown as a crop: how to grow vetiver, from sowing to harvest, in Laisha's grow guides.

• 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.