Dadimashtaka Chooranam

--- by Sheela Rani Chunkath

The next time you are visiting a patient please take pomegranates rather than the usual oranges or sweet lime. Pomegranate is one fruit that is easy on the stomach, being naturally astringent it binds the stomach, and is good for convalescing patients whose digestive fires may be weak.

There is a wonderful churanam called Dadimashtaka chooranam made from the rind of the pomegranate fruit. If you have eaten out, perhaps binged out on pani pooris and find yourself with an upset stomach or diarrhoea, don’t panic and run to the nearest nursing home to have a glucose drip. Let one or two bowel movements happen to to relieve the body of whatever toxic substances you may have ingested. Once you are kind of sure that most of what you have eaten has passed out of the system you can then proceed to stop the diarhoea by taking 1 to 3 grams about a quarter to half teaspoon of Dadimashtaka chooranam with honey or buttermilk (from which butter has been removed). When and only when you feel hungry should you eat any food. This should consist in the beginning of rice kanji (porridge) made from boiled rice and seasoned with a little cumin seeds and salted with indu uppu. If you are not feeling hungry don’t eat anything. Fasting is a great remedy for diarrhoea. When you start to feel hungry start with a little kanji and a little pomegranate juice. Bread, milk, fruits and other such foods are better avoided in the beginning.

Dadimashtaka churanam has been described in the Ashtanga Hrdayam’s Atisara Chikitsa, written nearly 1400 years ago. This drug is very effective and has really stood the test of time. The major ingredient of the drug is pomegranate rind. In many villages it was the common practice to give the very tender fruit of pomogranate to people having diarhoea. Other ingredients of Dadimashtaka chooranam consists of bamboo manna, ajwain, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, long pepper roots, dried ginger, pepper, long pepper, cinnamon bark and leaves, cardamom and nagkeshar stamens.

Most diarrhoeas are manageable if you manage them sensibly by not eating till you feel hungry – the body’s signal that it is ready to receive food.

Diarrhoea according to the great sage Atreya arises because the digestive fire has been destroyed and hence fasting at the commencement of the disease is ideal. If you have pain in the abdomen, flatulence and excess salivation, just vomit out what you have eaten and you will feel much better. Fasting and vomiting will help restore the digestive fires at which point you can have kanji and some pomegranate juice with Dadimashtaka chooranam. This drug is also one of the drugs recommended as part of the kit to be kept in every village by the village health nurse so that quick help is at hand to treat patients.

--- The writer was earlier Health Secretary, Govt. of Tamil Nadu and is currently CMD, TN Industrial Investment Corporation; Sheelarani.arogyamantra@gmail.com