Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Plantain (Musa paradisiaca), of the Musaceae family. Large suckering perennial herb with a corm-like rhizome and a false stem of tightly rolled leaf-sheaths, dying back after fruiting; native range: Southeast Asia and the Indo-Malayan tropics; cultivated throughout India and the tropical world. Globally recognized as kadalī · rambhā · moca in Sanskrit, kela in Hindi, and plantain, banana in English. The part used is fruit, the expressed juice (rasa) of the pseudostem and rhizome, the rhizome, the flower, and the ash (kṣāra) prepared from the burnt plant. The ripe fruit sweet, heavy and mucilaginous with no bitterness; the unripe fruit and the fresh juice of the stem astringent and mouth-puckering, staining the hands brown.
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.
PLANTAIN
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- plantain
- Scientific name
- Musa paradisiaca L.
- Family
- Musaceae
Form
- Part used
- fruit, the expressed juice (rasa) of the pseudostem and rhizome, the rhizome, the flower, and the ash (kṣāra) prepared from the burnt plant
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- sweet (madhura) · astringent (kashaya)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- cooling (shita)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- madhura and shita (sweet, cooling and pitta-quelling), brimhana (nourishing and flesh-building), daha-prashamana (allays burning), mutrala (diuretic), ashmari-bhedana by the kshara (breaks urinary stone), and grahi in the unripe fruit (checks the flux)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- kapha conditions, cough and cold, and sluggish digestion — the ripe fruit is heavy and hard to digest
- Toxicity
- the fruit is a food and carries no toxicity; the kshara is a caustic alkali and is given only in the small dose, well diluted
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