Vasa

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Adusa

What the texts say Vasa does

• Kasahara — relieves cough
• Shwasahara — relieves breathlessness
• Raktastambhana — checks bleeding (haemostatic)
• Jwaraghna — used in fever
• Kaphaghna — pacifies kapha
• Vranashodhana — cleans wounds

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

Side effects and limits

• Nausea and vomiting
• Digestive upset
• Bitterness

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy — absolutely.; Breastfeeding.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Madhu is the classical anupana in raktapitta and kasa. Uterotonic — contraindicated in pregnancy.

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

Vasicine is both the marker and the reason for the pregnancy contraindication — it is uterotonic, and the per cent is the exposure.

These are the pharmacopoeial limits for the article, not a test Laisha has run on anything. They are here so a practitioner can ask a supplier for a certificate of analysis and know what the numbers on it should say.

Tikta and kashaya with sheeta virya and katu vipaka. The sheeta virya is what separates it from the other cough dravya, most of which are ushna.

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.

Simhasya, lion's mouth, describes the flower. Bhishangmata — mother of physicians — is the paryaya worth remembering: the texts hold that no physician need despair while vasa exists, which is as strong a statement as the nighantus make about any single plant.

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 Justicia species are collected with it. The more common problem is age: leaves that have stood lose their alkaloid content, and old stock is bulked into new. The plant is distinctive enough in the field that misidentification is uncommon compared with most dravya in this library.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Adhatoda vasica is a synonym and is the name most Ayurvedic literature uses; they are not two plants.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Justicia honours James Justice. Adhatoda is from the Tamil adhu-thodai, goat-does-not-touch-it — the plant goats refuse. The epithet is a sentence in Tamil.

Vasa is named in the Charaka Samhita among the dravya used where there is bleeding, and is described 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 quinazoline alkaloids, principally vasicine and vasicinone. Vasicine is the basis of the documented uterine action described below.

• 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.