Gokshura
The small, star-shaped spiny fruit of a creeping plant of dry fields, sharp enough to hurt a cow's hoof. Mild and slightly sweet, it is also one of the ten roots of dashamoola.
- Settles Vata
- Settles Pitta
- Can raise Kapha
How Ayurveda reads gokshura
- Rasa · taste
- Sweet (madhura)
- Guṇa · nature
- Heavy, unctuous (guru, snigdha)
- Vīrya · potency
- Cooling (śīta)
- Vipāka · after digestion
- Sweet (madhura)
- Part used
- Fruit
Reviewed by the Vapika team.
In the tradition
Go-kṣura, "cow's hoof", and śvadaṃṣṭrā, "dog's tooth", are both for its fruit: a hard little burr with sharp spines that catches in hooves and bare feet. It grows flat along dry fields across India.
Gokshura is one of the lesser five roots of dashamoola. In practice the fruit, not the root, is what is used, and that is what the texts' readers have long taken it to mean.
How Ayurveda reads it
Gokshura is sweet, heavy and unctuous, and cooling. It is described as settling Vata and Pitta, and as balya, giving strength.
In the Indian kitchen
Gokshura is not a kitchen herb. It is taken as a powder or a decoction.
How we use it
We use the dried fruit in our Gokshura Ashwagandha Kahwa for Men, and as one of the ten in our Dashmoola Kwath.
Gokshura in our blends
From the texts: Caraka Saṃhitā, Sūtrasthāna 4 (śvadaṃṣṭrā among the mūtravirecanīya; also in the laghu pañcamūla); Bhāvaprakāśa Nighaṇṭu, Guḍūcyādi varga.
For learning, not diagnosis. If you are pregnant, nursing or on medication, please speak to your doctor first.