Witnessed by: Western

Cochineal (Dactylopius coccus), of the Dactylopiidae (Insecta) family. A small scale insect living fixed to the pads of nopal cactus (Opuntia); the drug is the dried mature female; native range: Mexico and Central America, on nopal cactus; cultivated for the dye in Peru, the Canary Islands and elsewhere. Globally recognized as cochinilla, grana in Spanish, and cochineal, coccus cacti in English. The part used is the whole dried female insect. Small shrivelled silvery-grey to purplish-black grains, roughly ovoid and ridged, crushing to a deep crimson powder that stains water intensely red; the odour faint, the taste slightly bitter.

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.

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