Witnessed by: Unani
White lupin (Lupinus albus), of the Fabaceae (Leguminosae) family. Erect annual legume with palmate leaves and white pea-flowers in a spike, bearing flat hairy pods; native range: the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans; long cultivated around the Mediterranean and in Egypt. Globally recognized as turmus (ترمس) in Arabic, bāqilā-e-misri in Persian, turmus, bakla misri in Urdu, and white lupin, Egyptian bean in English. The part used is seed; seed flour. Flat disc-shaped ivory seeds, hard and heavy, intensely and lastingly bitter until steeped; the flour pale and bland-smelling.
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.
WHITE LUPIN
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- white lupin
- Scientific name
- Lupinus albus L.
- Family
- Fabaceae (Leguminosae)
Form
- Part used
- seed; seed flour
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Unani
- bitter
Temperature
- Unani
- hot (1st degree)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Unani
- liver · spleen · intestines · skin · uterus
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Unani
- qatil-e-deedan (vermifuge), mufattih-e-sudad (deobstruent), jali (detergent), muhallil-e-waram (resolvent), mudirr-e-haiz (emmenagogue), muqawwi-e-meda (stomachic)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- hot and bilious temperaments; avoid in pregnancy, the seed being an emmenagogue
- Toxicity
- the unsteeped bitter seed in quantity is heating and nauseating; bitter lupin seed carries alkaloids and is not a food until thoroughly steeped
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