Witnessed by: Ayurveda · Unani

Black salt, of the halide (a sulfurous NaCl salt carrying iron and sulphide traces; a mixture, not a single species) family. Hard dark violet-brown to black lumps, breaking to a pinkish-grey powder; native range: prepared salt of the Indian subcontinent — rock salt fired with harad seeds and reducing matter until the sulphides form, and drawn from certain naturally sulphurous salt sources. Globally recognized as sauvarcala lavana, sauvarchala, ruchaka in Sanskrit, kala namak in Hindi, namak siyah in Arabic/Urdu, and black salt in English. The part used is the salt, powdered. Dark violet-black in the lump and pink-grey when ground, saline with a distinct sulphurous, egg-like smell and a faint pungency behind the salt.

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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