Witnessed by: Unani
Jhau (Tamarix dioica), of the Tamaricaceae family. Shrub or small tree with slender, jointed, grey-green branchlets bearing minute scale-leaves, and fine pink racemes; native range: riverbeds, sandy flats and saline ground of the Indian plains, Sind and Baluchistan. Globally recognized as tarfa in Arabic, gaz in Persian, jhau · mayin · berg-e-jhao (the leaf) in Urdu, and tamarisk in English. The part used is leaf and bark; also the galls. Slender grey-green feathery shoots, often crusted with excreted salt that tastes brackish on the tongue; the bark and leaf strongly astringent and puckering.
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.
JHAU
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- jhau
- Scientific name
- Tamarix dioica Roxb. ex Roth
- Family
- Tamaricaceae
Form
- Part used
- leaf and bark; also the galls
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Unani
- astringent
Temperature
- Unani
- cold & dry
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Unani
- spleen · intestines
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Unani
- qabiz (astringent), habis-ud-dam (styptic, checks bleeding), and a drug of the spleen in the older reckoning
Cautions
- Toxicity
- low toxicity; the astringent decoction taken freely and long may bind the bowel and disturb digestion
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