Witnessed by: TCM · Ayurveda · Western · Unani

Cotton (Gossypium herbaceum), of the Malvaceae family. Branching shrub or subshrub with lobed leaves, yellow mallow-flowers and bolls that split to fluffy white lint; native range: Arabia, north-east Africa and western India; anciently cultivated across the Old World for its fibre. Globally recognized as karpasa in Sanskrit, kapas in Hindi, mian hua (棉花); root: mian hua gen (棉花根) in Chinese, qutn in Arabic, and Levant cotton · Arabian cotton · cotton-root bark in English. The part used is the fresh inner root bark; also the seed and the raw lint (cotton wool). Tough, fibrous root bark, pale within and reddish without, faintly acrid and astringent; the seed is oily, the lint soft, clean and near-tasteless.

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.

COTTON

IDENTITY

Name

Common: Cotton
Scientific name: Gossypium herbaceum L.
Family: Malvaceae

Form

Part used: the fresh inner root bark; also the seed and the raw lint (cotton wool)

PROPERTIES

Nature

Taste

how the plant declares itself on the tongue

TCM: sweet
Ayurveda: astringent · pungent (kashaya, katu)
Western: astringent · acrid
Unani: sweet

Temperature

TCM: neutral
Ayurveda: heating (ushna) — root and seed
Unani: hot & moist (seed, 1st degree)

Affinity

where in the body it travels

Organs / channels

TCM: Lung · Spleen
Western: uterus · circulation · blood
Unani: uterus · lungs · kidneys

PRACTICE

Virtue

Actions

TCM: tonifies qi and stops cough and wheeze (root), and the root bark regulates menstruation and checks flooding
Ayurveda: artava-janana (emmenagogue, root bark), stanyajanana and vrishya (seed), kaphavata-hara
Western: emmenagogue, parturient and oxytocic (root bark) to promote labour and menses and to check post-partum flooding; the seed demulcent, the lint an absorbent dressing
Unani: muqawwi-e-bah (aphrodisiac) and nutritive (seed), demulcent for cough; the root emmenagogue, the wool a wound dressing

Cautions

Contraindications: pregnancy — the root bark is a uterine stimulant and abortifacient; heavy menstrual bleeding when used as emmenagogue

Toxicity: gossypol in the crude seed and unrefined oil is toxic — it depresses sperm and can cause potassium loss, weakness and, in excess, cardiac and hepatic harm; the raw seed is not a casual food

Interactions

Western: diuretics: gossypol-associated potassium loss adds to diuretic hypokalaemia

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