Witnessed by: Ayurveda

Soma creeper (Sarcostemma acidum), of the Apocynaceae (Asclepiadoideae; formerly Asclepiadaceae) family. Leafless fleshy green rambling creeper with jointed, pencil-thick cylindrical stems and milky sap; native range: dry rocky hills and arid open ground of India and Sri Lanka, west into Iran. Globally recognized as somavallī · somalatā in Sanskrit, somlata in Hindi, and soma creeper, moon plant in English. The part used is stem; the expressed juice (svarasa) of the fresh stem. Green, jointed, leafless stems, sour and acrid to the tongue, bleeding a white latex when broken.

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.

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