Brihati
The root of a prickly wild cousin of the brinjal, with violet flowers and small orange berries. Brihati is one of the five small-plant roots of dashamoola.
- Settles Kapha
- Settles Vata
- Can raise Pitta
How Ayurveda reads brihati
- Rasa · taste
- Pungent, bitter (kaṭu, tikta)
- Guṇa · nature
- Light, dry, sharp (laghu, rūkṣa, tīkṣṇa)
- Vīrya · potency
- Heating (uṣṇa)
- Vipāka · after digestion
- Pungent (kaṭu)
- Part used
- Root
Reviewed by the Vapika team.
In the tradition
Bṛhatī, "the large one", is the bigger of the two wild nightshades of dashamoola; the smaller is kantakari. Both are spiny shrubs of dry wasteland, close relatives of the brinjal. The two together are called bṛhatī-dvaya, "the pair of brihatis".
Brihati is one of the lesser five roots of dashamoola.
How Ayurveda reads it
Brihati is pungent and bitter, light, dry and sharp, and heating. It is described as settling Kapha and Vata.
How we use it
We use dried brihati root as one of the ten in our Dashmoola Kwath.
Brihati in our blends
From the texts: Caraka Saṃhitā, Sūtrasthāna 4 (in the daśamūla); Suśruta Saṃhitā, Sūtrasthāna 38 (laghu pañcamūla); Bhāvaprakāśa Nighaṇṭu, Guḍūcyādi varga.
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