Witnessed by: TCM · Ayurveda · Western · Unani

Nux vomica (Strychnos nux-vomica), of the Loganiaceae family. Medium tree with a short crooked trunk and orange berries the size of an apple; native range: the deciduous forests of India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Globally recognized as kupilu / vishatinduka / kuchla in Sanskrit, kuchla in Hindi, ma qian zi (马钱子) in Chinese, azaraqi (أذراقي) in Arabic, and poison nut, quaker buttons, strychnine tree in English. The part used is ripe seed (the flat disc-shaped 'button'). Hard, grey-green, silky-hairy discs, horn-like and near odourless, of an intense, persistent, purely bitter taste — the bitterness of strychnine perceptible at extreme dilution.

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.

NUX VOMICA

IDENTITY

Name

Common: Nux vomica
Scientific name: Strychnos nux-vomica L.
Family: Loganiaceae

Form

Part used: ripe seed (the flat disc-shaped 'button')

PROPERTIES

Nature

Taste

how the plant declares itself on the tongue

TCM: bitter
Ayurveda: bitter (tikta) · pungent (katu)
Western: bitter
Unani: bitter

Temperature

TCM: cold
Ayurveda: heating (ushna)
Western: hot
Unani: hot & dry (3rd degree)

Affinity

where in the body it travels

Organs / channels

TCM: Liver · Spleen
Western: nerves · nervous system · digestion · circulation
Unani: nerves · brain · stomach

PRACTICE

Virtue

Actions

TCM: unblocks the collaterals and relieves pain, disperses blood stasis and reduces swelling, dissipates nodules — in minute doses of processed seed only
Ayurveda: nadi-balya (nervine stimulant), deepana (kindles digestion), vrishya (aphrodisiac), vata-kapha-hara, shothahara — only as purified (shodhita) kupilu
Western: bitter tonic, stomachic, and stimulant of the central and spinal nervous system; historically a respiratory and circulatory stimulant — at toxic dose a violent convulsant poison
Unani: muharrik-e-asab (nerve stimulant), muqawwi-e-bah (aphrodisiac), used in falij (paralysis) and laqwa (facial palsy) — as detoxified azaraqi

Cautions

Contraindications: pregnancy, lactation, infancy and old age; epilepsy, hypertension, spastic conditions, liver or kidney disease; never to be used unprocessed and never for self-medication

Toxicity: the seed contains strychnine and brucine. Strychnine is a violent convulsant — a competitive antagonist at spinal glycine receptors that strips away motor inhibition, producing muscle stiffness, hyperreflexia, then agonising tetanic convulsions with arched back (opisthotonos) and fixed grimace (risus sardonicus) triggered by the least noise or touch, consciousness fully retained; death follows from respiratory paralysis, asphyxia and hyperthermia. The lethal dose of strychnine is roughly 30–120 mg in an adult, with severe toxicity from as little as 5 mg, and a small number of unprocessed seeds can kill. Even detoxified material keeps a very narrow margin of safety — any overdose is a medical emergency to be treated as strychnine poisoning.

Interactions

Western: antiepileptics: strychnine lowers the seizure threshold and antagonises inhibitory neurotransmission, opposing anticonvulsant control · CYP450-metabolised drugs: strychnine is metabolised by hepatic CYP3A4; enzyme inhibitors raise blood levels toward the narrow toxic threshold · sedatives / CNS depressants: physiological antagonism to CNS depressants, and masking of early stimulant toxicity

This is the card. Sign in for the full four-tradition entry — the aligned TCM · Ayurveda · Western · Unani reading, actions, dosing and cautions.