Witnessed by: TCM · Ayurveda
Picrorhiza (Picrorhiza scrophulariiflora), of the Plantaginaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae) family. Small alpine perennial with a creeping woody rhizome and a basal rosette; native range: high Himalaya from Nepal and Sikkim into Tibet and western China, on rocky alpine slopes. Globally recognized as katuka / katuki / tikta in Sanskrit, kutki in Hindi, hu huang lian (胡黄连) in Chinese, and picrorhiza, kutki in English. The part used is rhizome and root. Dark, wrinkled, quill-like pieces breaking with a horny fracture, near odourless, dissolving into an intense and lasting bitterness.
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.
PICRORHIZA
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- Picrorhiza
- Scientific name
- Picrorhiza scrophulariiflora Pennell
- Family
- Plantaginaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae)
Form
- Part used
- rhizome and root
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- bitter
- Ayurveda
- bitter (tikta)
Temperature
- TCM
- cold
- Ayurveda
- cooling (shita)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Liver · Stomach · Large Intestine
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- clears heat and dries dampness, drains deficiency-heat and steaming-bone fever, cools the blood and relieves childhood nutritional impairment (gan)
- Ayurveda
- tikta bitter tonic, dipana-pachana (kindles digestion), pitta-virechana (cholagogue purgative), yakrit-uttejaka (hepatic stimulant), jvaraghna (antipyretic)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- cold and weak spleen and stomach with poor appetite and loose stools; use only where there is genuine heat
- Toxicity
- large doses purge and gripe the bowel
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