Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Amlavetasa (Garcinia pedunculata), of the Clusiaceae family. Large evergreen tree with leathery leaves and heavy yellow globose fruit; native range: moist evergreen forest of northeastern India, Assam and the eastern Himalayan foothills. Globally recognized as amlavetasa · vetasāmla · śatavedhī in Sanskrit, bor thekera in Assamese, and amlavetasa in English. The part used is fruit. Thick sun-dried slices, brown to black and leathery, the taste fiercely and cleanly sour, puckering, with a faint fruity sweetness far behind it.
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.
AMLAVETASA
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- amlavetasa
- Scientific name
- Garcinia pedunculata Roxb. ex Buch.-Ham.
- Family
- Clusiaceae
Form
- Part used
- fruit
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- sour (amla)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- heating (ushna)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- deepana (kindles the digestive fire), pachana (digests ama), vata-anulomana (carminative), hridya (cardiac tonic), chhardighna (checks vomiting), bhedana (loosens the bowel)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- pitta disorders, hyperacidity and gastric ulcer, raktapitta and bleeding states, skin disease — the sour heating fruit aggravates all of these
- Toxicity
- low; excess brings burning, acidity and loose stools
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