Witnessed by: Ayurveda

Buffalo bile (Bubalus bubalis), of the Bovidae (Mammalia) family. The water buffalo — a large slate-grey ruminant with swept-back crescent horns, kept for milk and draught; native range: the water buffalo of the Indian subcontinent; the gall taken from the slaughtered animal. Globally recognized as māhiṣa pitta in Sanskrit, and buffalo bile, buffalo gall in English. The part used is the bile, drawn fresh from the gall bladder. A viscid dark olive-green to brown-green fluid, slippery and clinging, with a heavy animal smell and a taste that is bitter past ordinary bitterness.

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.

This is the card. Sign in for the full four-tradition entry — the aligned TCM · Ayurveda · Western · Unani reading, actions, dosing and cautions.