Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Vida salt, of the halide salt (prepared sulphurous NaCl) family. A dark grey to blackish-brown prepared salt, in lumps and powder; native range: not mined but made — common salt fired with amalaki, myrobalan and other media until it takes on its dark colour and sulphurous smell. Globally recognized as vida lavana, bida lavana in Sanskrit, bid lavan in Hindi, and vida salt, black salt in English. The part used is the prepared salt. Dark grey to purplish-black, salty and sharp, with the unmistakable sulphurous smell of the boiled egg; the powder is pinkish where it is finely ground.
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.
VIDA SALT
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- vida salt
- Family
- halide salt (prepared sulphurous NaCl)
Form
- Part used
- the prepared salt
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- salty (lavana) · pungent (katu)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- heating (ushna, tikshna — the sharpest of the lavanas)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- anulomana (turns the wind downward — its chief virtue), deepana (kindles digestion), pachana (digestive), chedana (cuts through accumulation), rochana (restores relish), hridya (good for the heart), vatahara
Cautions
- Contraindications
- hyperacidity and ulceration, bleeding tendency (raktapitta), pitta excess, oedema and skin disease; caution in pregnancy
- Toxicity
- benign in the usual dose; the sharpest of the salts, so excess burns the stomach, aggravates pitta and disturbs the fluid balance
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