Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Stinging nettle vine (Tragia involucrata), of the Euphorbiaceae family. Slender twining or trailing perennial herb, the whole of it clothed in stinging hairs, scrambling through hedges and scrub; native range: India and Sri Lanka, through the plains and low hills, in scrub, hedges and waste ground. Globally recognized as vṛścikālī · duḥsparśā · kaṇḍūrā in Sanskrit, barhanta · bichhuti in Hindi, and Indian stinging nettle, scorpion creeper in English. The part used is root; also the whole plant. Every part bristling with fine stinging hairs that break in the skin on the lightest touch and raise a burning, itching wheal at once; the root sharp and biting to the tongue.
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.
VRSCIKALI
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- stinging nettle vine
- Scientific name
- Tragia involucrata L.
- Family
- Euphorbiaceae
Form
- Part used
- root; also the whole plant
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- pungent (katu) · bitter (tikta)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- heating (ushna)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- vātahara (a drug of the vāta disorders), kandughna (allays the itch), kushthaghna (a drug of the skin diseases), jvaraghna (antipyretic), svedana and a rubefacient counter-irritant in the fresh plant applied outwardly
Cautions
- Contraindications
- pitta excess, hot and inflamed conditions, and broken or inflamed skin — the fresh plant is not applied to a raw surface
- Toxicity
- the stinging hairs raise a painful urticarial wheal on any contact, and the plant must be handled with cloth or gloves; the counter-irritant application is deliberate and is kept off the face, the eyes and the mucous membranes
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