Yashtimadhu

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Mulethi

What the texts say Yashtimadhu does

• Jivaniya — vitalising, life-sustaining
• Varnya — improves complexion
• Kanthya — good for the throat and voice
• Chakshushya — good for the eyes
• Vrishya — aphrodisiac, supports reproductive vigour
• Shothahara — reduces swelling

What the evidence says. Weak. NCCIH states there is not enough high-quality evidence to clearly support its use for any health condition.

Side effects and limits

• Raised blood pressure
• Irregular heartbeat

Avoid or ask first: Avoid if you have high blood pressure, heart disease or kidney disease, unless a doctor says otherwise.; Avoid large amounts in pregnancy.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Time-limited by design: prolonged use causes sodium and water retention with potassium loss. EMA/HMPC gives roughly 100 mg glycyrrhizin a day and no more than 4–6 weeks without supervision.

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

Glycyrrhizin is both the marker and the hazard, which is why this per cent matters more than most: the EMA ceiling on daily glycyrrhizin is stated in the matra block above, and it is only meaningful if you know what fraction of the drug is glycyrrhizin. A sample assaying at twice the minimum delivers twice the exposure at the same matra.

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.

A single rasa, madhura, and one of the clearest examples of it in the materia medica.

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.

Yashti means a stick and madhu means sweet: the sweet stick. The name is a description of the article as it is sold.

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.

Abrus precatorius, gunja, is called Indian liquorice and its root is substituted for yashtimadhu in some markets. That is a substitution worth knowing about, because Abrus seed is severely toxic; the root is not the seed, but a trade that confuses the plants is a trade that can confuse the parts. Exhausted root — already extracted for its sweetness and dried again — is the commoner and quieter adulteration.

Three species are used: Glycyrrhiza glabra, Glycyrrhiza uralensis and Glycyrrhiza inflata. Products may contain any of them. Confirmed live against the GBIF backbone taxonomy.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Glycyrrhiza is glykys (sweet) + rhiza (root) — sweet root, and liquorice is the same two Greek words worn down through Latin and French. Glabra means smooth, without hairs. Yashti-madhu means sweet stick: the Sanskrit is the Greek, translated.

Licorice appears in Ayurveda as yashtimadhu and is among the most widely used plants in traditional Chinese medicine. That is what the traditions hold; it is not a finding about what the plant does in a body, and the cardiac effects described here occurred within traditional and everyday use.

• No dose is given, here or anywhere in this library.
• Nothing here is a recommendation to take licorice, or to stop taking anything prescribed.
• Licorice sweets and licorice root products are not the same thing, and a sweet flavoured with anise is not licorice at all.