Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Monkey jack (Artocarpus lakoocha), of the Moraceae family. A large deciduous tree with a rough dark bark and a milky latex, bearing irregular, knobbly yellowish compound fruits; native range: moist deciduous forest of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from the Himalayan foothills to Malaysia; also planted. Globally recognized as lakucha, likucha, granthiphala in Sanskrit, barhal, dahua in Hindi, puag-haad (the heartwood extract) in Thai, and monkey jack, monkey fruit, lakoocha in English. The part used is heartwood (and, as a food, the fruit); the bark and latex outwardly. The heartwood is yellow to yellow-brown and bitter; the ripe fruit is dull yellow, velvety, and sourly sweet with a fibrous flesh; the cut bark bleeds a sticky white latex.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
MONKEY JACK
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- monkey jack
- Scientific name
- Artocarpus lakoocha Roxb.
- Family
- Moraceae
Form
- Part used
- heartwood (and, as a food, the fruit); the bark and latex outwardly
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- sour (amla, the fruit) · astringent (kashaya)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- heating (ushna)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- krimighna (kills worms — the heartwood's chief virtue), grahi (binding), the fruit ruchya (restores relish) and vishtambhi (obstructive); the latex and bark ropana (heal) and shothahara (reduce swelling) outwardly
Cautions
- Contraindications
- weak digestion and pitta excess; the unripe fruit is best avoided by those it obstructs
- Toxicity
- the heartwood extract in the anthelmintic dose commonly gives nausea, vomiting and loose stool, and the latex is irritant to the skin and the eye
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