Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Helicopter flower (Hiptage benghalensis), of the Malpighiaceae family. Large woody climber or scrambling shrub with leathery opposite leaves and dense racemes of fringed white flowers marked with a yellow blotch; native range: forest edges and scrub of India, Southeast Asia and the Philippines; widely planted and, outside its range, invasive. Globally recognized as mādhavī · atimukta · vāsantī in Sanskrit, madhavi lata · madhumalati in Hindi, and helicopter flower, hiptage in English. The part used is flower; leaf; bark. Flowers strongly and sweetly fragrant; the leaf and bark bitter and astringent to the tongue.
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.
MADHAVI
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- helicopter flower
- Scientific name
- Hiptage benghalensis (L.) Kurz
- Family
- Malpighiaceae
Form
- Part used
- flower; leaf; bark
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- bitter (tikta) · astringent (kashaya)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- heating (ushna)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- kushthaghna (acts on chronic skin disease), krimighna (anthelmintic), kandughna (allays itching), vranaropana (heals wounds), kaphahara (clears kapha)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- pitta-predominant and hot states, where the heating drug aggravates; pregnancy
- Toxicity
- low in customary use
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