Banafsha
The small purple sweet violet, dried. Banafsha comes to the Indian cup from Unani tradition, where gul-e-banafsha is one of the best-known flowers of the dawakhana.
How Ayurveda reads banafsha
- Part used
- Flower
Reviewed by the Vapika team.
In the tradition
Banafsha is a Unani herb rather than an Ayurvedic one. It came to India with Persian medicine, and the dried violet flowers, gul-e-banafsha, have been sold by Unani dawakhanas in the old cities of the north for centuries, as flowers and as a deep purple sharbat.
How we read it
The classical Ayurvedic texts don't describe banafsha, so this page gives it no rasa, guṇa or vīrya. By taste it is mild, soft and faintly floral, and Unani practice counts it among the cooling flowers.
In the Indian kitchen
Not a kitchen herb. Its place is the herbal tea and the sharbat.
How we use it
We use dried banafsha flowers in our Desi Tea – Garm Jal, beside rose petals, for a soft floral note.
Banafsha in our blends
From the texts: Not described in the classical Ayurvedic texts. Used in Unani medicine as gul-e-banafsha.
For learning, not diagnosis. If you are pregnant, nursing or on medication, please speak to your doctor first.