Witnessed by: TCM · Ayurveda · Unani
Eggplant (Solanum melongena), of the Solanaceae family. Erect branching annual herb, prickly in wild forms, bearing a large pendulous berry; native range: domesticated in India and South-East Asia from wild Solanum ancestors; long grown in China and the Arab world. Globally recognized as vartaka / vrintaka in Sanskrit, baingan in Hindi, qie (茄) in Chinese, badinjan (باذنجان) in Arabic, and brinjal, aubergine, garden egg in English. The part used is fruit; also root and calyx. A glossy purple-black or white berry, spongy and bland raw, turning silky and faintly bitter-sweet when cooked; the green calyx is astringent.
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.
EGGPLANT
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- Eggplant
- Scientific name
- Solanum melongena L.
- Family
- Solanaceae
Form
- Part used
- fruit; also root and calyx
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- sweet
- Ayurveda
- dominant: pungent (katu) · bitter (tikta) · then: sweet (madhura)
- Unani
- sweet · astringent
Temperature
- TCM
- cool
- Ayurveda
- heating (ushna — the ripe fruit)
- Unani
- hot & dry (2nd degree — generating black bile)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Spleen · Stomach · Large Intestine
- Unani
- stomach · liver · spleen
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- cools the blood, clears heat, disperses stasis and reduces swelling; relieves pain
- Ayurveda
- dipana (kindles digestion), hridya (cardiac), vata-kaphahara, nidrajanana (the tender fruit promotes sleep)
- Unani
- muwallid-e-sauda (generates black bile), mulaiyin (laxative), munzij (concoctive); the ash daf-e-bawaseer (for piles)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- high pitta and acidity, arthritis and eye disease (classically avoided), melancholic and atrabilious states
- Toxicity
- the raw fruit, leaf and calyx hold solanine glyco-alkaloids and may gripe or nauseate; best eaten cooked
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