Witnessed by: TCM · Ayurveda · Western · Unani
Conessi (Holarrhena pubescens), of the Apocynaceae family. Small deciduous tree or large shrub with milky latex and paired follicle pods; native range: Deciduous forests across the Indian subcontinent, tropical Africa and Southeast Asia. Globally recognized as kutaja / indrayava (seed) in Sanskrit, kurchi / kuda in Hindi, zhi xie mu (止泻木) in Chinese, lisan-ul-asafir (of the seed) in Arabic, and kurchi bark, tellicherry bark, bitter oleander in English. The part used is stem bark and the seed (indrayava). Bark greyish, corky and warty without, pale and intensely bitter within; the slender paired pods split to shed many flat brown seeds, likewise bitter.
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.
CONESSI
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- conessi
- Scientific name
- Holarrhena pubescens Wall. ex G.Don
- Family
- Apocynaceae
Form
- Part used
- stem bark and the seed (indrayava)
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- bitter
- Ayurveda
- dominant: bitter (tikta) · astringent (kashaya)
- Western
- bitter · astringent
- Unani
- bitter · astringent
Temperature
TCM: cool
Ayurveda: cooling (sheeta)
Western: cool
Unani: hot & dry (2nd degree — of the seed, in the Unani reckoning)
convergence: the astringent bark reads cooling to three witnesses, while Unani grades the seed indarjau as heating and drying — the divergence follows part and doctrine
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Large Intestine · Stomach
- Western
- bowels · intestines · mucous membranes
- Unani
- intestines · stomach · liver
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- cools and binds, checks diarrhoea and dysentery
- Ayurveda
- grahi (bowel-binding), krimighna (antiparasitic), dipana (digestive), stambhana (astringent), rakta-shodhana (blood-cleansing)
- Western
- astringent, antidysenteric, antiperiodic, febrifuge, anthelmintic
- Unani
- qabiz (astringent), habis (styptic), daf-e-zaheer (anti-dysenteric), qatil-e-deedan (vermifuge)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- constipation and dryness; use with care in vata-predominant and debilitated persons where its astringency may bind too hard
- Toxicity
- broadly well tolerated in traditional bark doses; the isolated alkaloid conessine in quantity is a nervous and cardiac stimulant and can provoke giddiness, anxiety and hypertension, so concentrated extracts are dosed with restraint
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