Common Ayurvedic Plants

            by Sheela Rani Chunkath

It is a fascinating experience to attend a class of dravya guna in Ayurveda where they teach you to identify commonly used drugs. You will wonder how the plants you would often ignore have such wonderful properties. Any overgrown weed lot will have many of these important drugs. Take punarnava or Boerhavia diffusa, you will see it growing everywhere, on pavements and in unkempt gardens. Same is the case with Tinospora cordifolia, you will see it growing as a climber on many trees and wonder that such a common plant has so many wonderful properties. I used to be fascinated by a preparation called Trivrit lehyam which helps cure constipation. I thought the plant was a difficult to cultivate but then I found it growing wild in my college. The dasamoola group of drugs is considered one of the important classifications and is considered to be tridoshahara.

Many of the drugs in the laghupanchamoola such as gokshura (Tribulus terrestris), Prisniparni (Uraria picta), Kantakari (Xanthocarpus indicus), Brhati (Xanthocarpum suratense) and saliparni (Desmodium gangeticum) can be found growing wild everywhere. Our education system is so badly structured that we have not been taught to identify these wonderful plants that grow almost as weeds all around us. Even village children has lost the art of identifying the herbs that grow around them. With the loss of such knowledge, we lose traditional knowledge on how to use these plants. Blame it on the efficient allopathic system that the government of Tamil Nadu has put in place. If you have a cold you immediately go to the Primary Health Centre (PHC) for a tablet rather then have some tulasi juice or juice of Adhatoda vasica leaves. Both are very effective when taken in the early stages of a cold.

It is also fascinating to learn about the various roots that are available, from the roots of Vatsnaba, a lethal poison to the roots of satavari, a galactagogue, to kushta, the root of Saussurea lappa which is an excellent anti-inflammatory root. When we take our kids out for a picnic we need to point out such of the dravyas that are seen all around us. It is important to get our children excited about this stuff so that they grow up with an awareness of our medical inheritance and do not treat it as mere mumbo jumbo.

There is another plant with the fascinating name of kalamegha. Given half an opportunity this plant grow like a weed. It is called Andrographis paniculata and is one of the main ingredients in Ayurvedic in sudarshanam tablets which is a very effective antipyretic and antiviral preparation.

Then there is this beautiful roadside tree called Albizia lebbeck, called sirisa in Sanskrit. It is a tree whose parts can cure all sorts of poisons and it is classified under the Vishagna group of herbs. I know this tree as being the tree which is used for making Kattumarams. I was surprised to learn about its anti-poisonous properties.

Or take the beautiful Cassia fistula whose cascading flowers look like showers of gold. It has long black seed pods. Who would suggest that the pith of the seeds can be used as a virechana drug or a purgative?

A little imagination on the part of our school curriculum setters could make our children not only more aware of their environment but also healers in their own right.

--- The writer is retired Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu. She can be reached at Sheelarani.arogyamantra@gmail. com. Earlier articles can be accessed at http://arogyamantra.blogspot.com/