Kantakari
A low, very thorny wild nightshade with violet flowers and yellow, white-striped berries. Kantakari is one of the five small-plant roots of dashamoola.
- Settles Kapha
- Settles Vata
- Can raise Pitta
How Ayurveda reads kantakari
- 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 (often the whole plant)
Reviewed by the Vapika team.
In the tradition
Kaṇṭa-kārī, "the thorny one", and Vyāghrī, "the tigress", for the fierce spines on its stems, leaves and even its flower stalks. It sprawls over dry, open ground across India. It is the smaller of dashamoola's two wild nightshades; the larger is brihati.
Caraka names kantakari in his list of the foremost herbs.
Kantakari is one of the lesser five roots of dashamoola.
How Ayurveda reads it
Kantakari 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 kantakari root as one of the ten in our Dashmoola Kwath.
Kantakari in our blends
From the texts: Caraka Saṃhitā, Sūtrasthāna 4 (in the daśamūla) and Sūtrasthāna 25 (agrya); Suśruta Saṃhitā, Sūtrasthāna 38 (laghu pañcamūla); Bhāvaprakāśa Nighaṇṭu, Guḍūcyādi varga.
For learning, not diagnosis. If you are pregnant, nursing or on medication, please speak to your doctor first.