Witnessed by: TCM · Ayurveda · Western · Unani
Fig (Ficus carica), of the Moraceae family. Spreading deciduous tree or shrub with milky sap and broad lobed leaves; native range: Western Asia and the eastern Mediterranean; cultivated since the dawn of agriculture. Globally recognized as anjira / manjula in Sanskrit, anjeer in Hindi, wu hua guo (无花果) in Chinese, teen / anjeer in Arabic, and common fig · edible fig in English. The part used is the ripe (and dried) fruit; also the leaf and milky latex. A soft, honey-sweet fruit full of tiny crunching seeds, sticky and mucilaginous within; the unripe fruit and leaf bleed an acrid white latex that stings the skin.
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.
FIG
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- Fig
- Scientific name
- Ficus carica L.
- Family
- Moraceae
Form
- Part used
- the ripe (and dried) fruit; also the leaf and milky latex
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- sweet
- Ayurveda
- sweet (madhura)
- Western
- sweet · mucilaginous
- Unani
- sweet
Temperature
- TCM
- neutral
- Ayurveda
- cooling (sheeta)
- Western
- warm
- Unani
- hot & moist (1st degree)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Lung · Stomach · Large Intestine
- Western
- lungs · stomach · bowels
- Unani
- lungs · liver · spleen · intestines
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- clears heat and moistens the Lung, benefits the throat, harmonises the Stomach and aids digestion, moistens the intestines to move stool, resolves toxicity
- Ayurveda
- brmhana (nutritive), anulomana-bhedana (laxative), vrishya (aphrodisiac), raktapitta-shamana (soothes heat-bleeding), shramahara
- Western
- demulcent, emollient, nutritive and gently laxative; the roasted fig a maturating poultice
- Unani
- muleyyin (laxative), munzij-mundij (ripener-resolvent), muqawwi (nutritive tonic), mufatteh-e-sudad (deobstruent of liver and spleen)
Cautions
Contraindications: diabetes and marked kapha or ama (the dried fruit is very sugary); loose stools
Toxicity: the fresh leaf and unripe latex are photosensitising and can raise a blistering dermatitis in sunlight (furocoumarins)
Interactions
- Western
- photosensitising drugs: furocoumarins in the leaf and latex add to phototoxicity on the skin · antidiabetic agents: the leaf decoction lowers blood glucose and may add to the drugs' effect
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