Karisalankanni – a natural hair dye and treatment for jaundice

by Sheela Rani Chunkath

It is fun to walk on the bund of a paddy field testing your balancing skills while enjoying the greenery all round you. If one looks down, one will see all sorts of pretty flowers, mostly minuscule, but beautifully growing on the bund or on the edges of the field. Eclipta prostrata with its pretty white flowers, grows at the edges of the paddy fields and is a water loving plant. I have been fascinated by this plant because it is used both as a hair dye and as a treatment for jaundice.

Eclipta prostrata,  called Bhringarajah in Sanskrit and Karisalankanni in Tamil, is one of the ten sacred Dasapushpams -- two of which I had written about in my earlier article. I plucked a few leaves of the Bhringarajah and asked the little kids following me to do the same. We then crushed the leaves in our palms, got out the green juice and waited for a few seconds till the juice turned black and stained our fingers and our palms. Then we rubbed it on our hair, me needing it more than the kids!

Bhringarajah is one of the main ingredients of Nilibringadhi, the popular hair oil of yesteryears, which is now enjoying a revival. Other ingredients in this hair oil include indigo, Indigofera tinctoria (Nili in Tamil).

About 250-500 gm of leaves is taken and ground to a paste and dried in the sun as small flat cakes. This is then added to coconut oil. Alternatively the juice is extracted, added to the coconut oil and boiled till the water evaporates. This oil is used for oiling the hair. If you only like to read about preparations but really cannot be bothered to prepare these oils at home you can buy Nilibringhadi off the shelf. It is an excellent Ayurvedic preparation which is good for hair growth and for preventing dandruff and premature graying.  Bhringarajah is also called Kundalavardhanah meaning that which promotes hair growth and Kesaranjanah meaning that which imparts black colour to the hair.

Now for the liver protective properties of the herb -- while I would recommend anybody with jaundice to immediately see a vaidyar, the following is said to be very effective against jaundice – about 10 gm of Karisalankanni leaves are ground with 2 gm of pepper to a fine paste. This is dissolved in buttermilk and consumed twice a day. Phyllanthus neruri (Keezhanelli in Tamil) is said to be another specific medicine for jaundice. Jaundice is best treated by a vaidyar because allopaths consider it to be only a self-limiting viral infection. Western medicine is unable to treat the disease and often lives are lost because of ineffective treatment.

Ayurveda has a deep understanding of jaundice and treats it as a symptom of some deeper malaise. There is a detailed classification of jaundice depending on the underlying problem. I have been observing my vaidyar treating jaundice cases and am yet to see her fail in treating a case successfully. Once I had taken a friend's son who had had jaundice for more than a week and was surprised when the vaidyar prescribed some iron preparations and other medicines but not Keezhanelli or Karisalankanni. I gathered that the above treatments would suffice in mild cases but for more serious problems other preparations are prescribed depending on the nature of jaundice.

Bhrinjarajah is a good rejuvenator, good for the hair and skin; it is considered a specific in night-blindness, eye diseases, headaches and diseases pertaining to hair and its growth. It is also a hepatoprotective. No wonder then our vaidyars declared this to be a sacred flower and recommended women wear it in their hair during the festival of Thiruvathira.

--- The writer was earlier Health Secretary, Govt. of Tamil Nadu and is currently, Principal Secretary and Chairman & Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation. She can be reached at Sheelarani.arogyamantra@gmail.com. Earlier articles can be accessed at http://arogyamantra.blogspot.com/

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