Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Karonda (Carissa carandas), of the Apocynaceae family. A dense, thorny evergreen shrub with paired forked spines, milky latex and fragrant white flowers; native range: dry scrub and hedgerows across the Indian subcontinent, and planted for its fruit and as a thorn hedge. Globally recognized as karamarda, krishnapakaphala in Sanskrit, karonda in Hindi, kaḷākkāy in Tamil, and karonda, Bengal currant, Christ's thorn in English. The part used is fruit (unripe and ripe are distinguished); also the root. The unripe berry is whitish-pink, hard and sharply sour, bleeding a little white latex; ripened it is glossy purple-black, soft, sweet-sour and juicy, staining the fingers.
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.
KARONDA
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- karonda
- Scientific name
- Carissa carandas L.
- Family
- Apocynaceae
Form
- Part used
- fruit (unripe and ripe are distinguished); also the root
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- sour (amla, the unripe fruit) · sweet (madhura, the ripe)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- heating (ushna, the unripe fruit); the ripe fruit is cooling (sheeta)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- the unripe fruit deepana (kindles digestion), ruchya (restores relish), pachana (digestive) and grahi (binding); the ripe fruit balya (strengthening), pittahara and trishnanigrahana (quenches thirst); the root krimighna (kills worms) and used in skin disease
Cautions
- Contraindications
- the unripe fruit in pitta excess, hyperacidity and ulceration; the ripe fruit in kapha excess
- Toxicity
- the fruit is a food and benign; the plant's latex is irritant, and the unripe fruit in quantity gives acidity and loose stool
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