Vatsanabha

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Bachnag

What the texts say Vatsanabha does

• Jwaraghna — used in fever
• Vedanasthapana — relieves pain
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Yogavahi — carries the properties of what it is combined with
• Shoolaprashamana — relieves colicky pain

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

Side effects and limits

• Tingling and numbness of the mouth and tongue — this is an early sign of poisoning, not a side effect to tolerate
• Nausea and vomiting
• Palpitations

Avoid or ask first: Self-treatment, absolutely and without exception.; Pregnancy and breastfeeding.; Children.; and more below.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

The mahavisha. Only after proper shodhana, only inside a classical yoga such as Tribhuvana Kirti or Anandabhairava rasa, and it is Schedule E(1) in India. Aconitine is fatal at milligram quantities.

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.

Described as madhura after shodhana, with ushna virya and madhura vipaka. The raw root is not characterised by rasa in the texts because it is not a thing to taste.

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 first paryaya is simply Visha, poison. Amrita, nectar, sits beside it in the same list — the tradition's own way of saying that what the process does to this root decides which of the two it is.

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 Aconitum species are collected and sold as vatsanabha, and they differ in alkaloid content and in how much shodhana they need — which makes substitution here a life-safety problem and not a quality one. Ativisha, Aconitum heterophyllum, is a different plant of the same genus that is NOT a poison and is used freely; confusing the two in either direction is dangerous, in one direction because a poison is used as a safe herb, and in the other because an effective herb is subjected to unnecessary processing.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. This is the first of the sthavara visha — the plant poisons — and Ayurveda classes it as a poison outright rather than as a herb with cautions. Everything in this entry follows from that.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Aconitum, the classical monkshood. Ferox means fierce. Of all the epithets in this library, this is the one to take literally.

Vatsanabha is described in the Sushruta Samhita among the plant poisons, and the Rasatarangini gives its shodhana. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the root does in a body.

Constituents. The tuber carries diterpenoid alkaloids, chiefly aconitine and its relatives. Aconitine acts on the sodium channels of heart and nerve, which is the mechanism behind both its use and its lethality.

• 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.