Witnessed by: Western · Unani
Borage (Borago officinalis), of the Boraginaceae family. Stout bristly annual with hollow succulent stems and nodding blue star-shaped flowers; native range: the Mediterranean and Asia Minor, long naturalised through Europe. Globally recognized as lisan-al-thawr in Arabic, gaozaban in Hindi, and bee-bread, cool-tankard, ox-tongue in English. The part used is leaves and flowering tops. Rough, grey-green leaves clothed in stiff hairs, cool and mucilaginous with a fresh cucumber-like scent and a faintly saline taste.
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.
BORAGE
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- Borage
- Scientific name
- Borago officinalis L.
- Family
- Boraginaceae
Form
- Part used
- leaves and flowering tops
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Western
- mucilaginous · salty
- Unani
- bland · mucilaginous
Temperature
- Western
- cool
- Unani
- temperate (inclining to hot & moist)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Western
- heart · blood · nerves · lungs
- Unani
- heart · brain · blood
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Western
- cordial, exhilarant, diaphoretic, demulcent, febrifuge, galactagogue
- Unani
- mufarreh (exhilarant and cardiac tonic), musaffi-e-dam (blood-purifier), munzij (concoctive), mulattif
Cautions
Contraindications: prolonged or high-dose internal use in liver disease and in pregnancy
Toxicity: the leaves contain small amounts of hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids, so sustained heavy use is unwise
Interactions
- Western
- hepatotoxic drugs: additive liver burden from pyrrolizidine alkaloids
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