Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea), of the Fabaceae family. Erect annual herb to two metres with slender grooved branches and simple leaves, bearing yellow pea-flowers and inflated rattling pods; native range: the Indian subcontinent; grown across the tropics as a fibre and green-manure crop. Globally recognized as śaṇa in Sanskrit, san · sanai in Hindi, shon in Bengali, and sunn hemp, Indian hemp (of commerce), brown hemp in English. The part used is seed and leaf. Small heart-shaped dark seeds, bitter and unpleasant to the tongue; the leaf mucilaginous when bruised.
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.
SUNN HEMP
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- sunn hemp
- Scientific name
- Crotalaria juncea L.
- Family
- Fabaceae
Form
- Part used
- seed and leaf
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- bitter (tikta)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- heating (ushna)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- raktashodhaka (blood-purifying), kushthaghna (acts on skin disease), emmenagogue, purgative in full dose of the seed
Cautions
- Contraindications
- pregnancy; any liver disease; not for continued or repeated courses
- Toxicity
- the seed carries pyrrolizidine alkaloids of the monocrotaline kind, cumulative hepatotoxins that cause veno-occlusive disease of the liver; the plant is a known cause of fatal poisoning in grazing stock, and prolonged human use is unsafe at any dose
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