Witnessed by: Unani
Crab apple (Malus sylvestris), of the Rosaceae family. Small thorny deciduous tree of hedge and wood-edge with white-pink blossom and small hard fruit; native range: woodland and hedgerow of Europe and western Asia; the parent stock of the orchard apples. Globally recognized as seb (سیب) in Persian, tuffah in Arabic, seb; aab-e-seb (the juice) in Urdu, and crab apple, wild apple in English. The part used is fruit and its expressed juice (aab-e-seb); flower; bark. Small hard green-yellow apples, often flushed red, sharply sour and astringent, the flesh crisp and fragrant.
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.
CRAB APPLE
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- crab apple
- Scientific name
- Malus sylvestris (L.) Mill.
- Family
- Rosaceae
Form
- Part used
- fruit and its expressed juice (aab-e-seb); flower; bark
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Unani
- sour · sweet · astringent
Temperature
- Unani
- cold (1st degree; the sweeter fruit near temperate)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Unani
- heart · brain · liver · stomach
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Unani
- muqawwi-e-qalb (cardiac tonic), mufarreh (exhilarant), muqawwi-e-dimagh (brain tonic), muqawwi-e-meda (stomachic), qabiz (astringent), musakkin-e-hararat (allays heat), daf-e-atash (quenches thirst), muqawwi-e-jigar (liver tonic)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- cold and phlegmatic temperaments, cold colic and windy states of the bowel
- Toxicity
- none in ordinary use; the sour fruit in quantity may bring on wind and colic
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