Brihati

What is Brihati?

Brihati is a low, spreading shrub of the nightshade family, Solanum indicum. It is a prickly thing to handle: small straight thorns line the stems, the leaves are lobed, and clusters of little purple flowers ripen into round yellow berries. It grows wild on rough waste ground across much of India. The root is the part Ayurveda asks for.

Brihati keeps close company with another thorny nightshade, Kantakari, which has its own page here. The two are so regularly named in the same breath that the texts pair them as the “two Brihatis”, the larger and the smaller, and they share much of the same character.

What Ayurveda uses it for

Brihati’s chief claim is its place in the Dashamula, the “ten roots”. This is one of the best known groupings in all of Ayurveda: five roots from larger trees and five from smaller shrubs, brought together into a single set that sits at the base of countless classical formulas. Brihati is one of the five lesser roots.

On its own the root is reached for in two settings. The first is the breath. Brihati is counted among the kasahara herbs, those used where the chest feels heavy and the cough is loose, which the texts picture as cold and damp settled in the airways. Its warming, drying nature is meant to meet that cold and dry it out.

The second is the digestion. Brihati is a deepana herb, one that kindles the digestive fire, agni, and so it is named where the appetite is weak and digestion sluggish. Warming and light, it suits the slow, heavy quality the texts call Kapha.

Its qualities, in plain words

A short list of qualities tells you how Brihati behaves.

It is bitter and pungent in taste, the flavours the tradition ties to clearing and to kindling the digestion. It is warming, which is why it suits cold, congested, sluggish conditions and settles the heavy quality of Kapha. It is light and dry, so rather than adding to dampness it draws it down. And it finishes pungent after digestion, which keeps its warming, stirring character right to the end. A herb that warms, dries and gets things moving: that is the role it plays.

How it is taken

Brihati is almost never taken alone. Its place is inside formulas, above all those built on the Dashamula roots, where it lends its share to the whole. A simple traditional form is the kashayam, a water decoction of the root, taken in small measures. The root also goes into medicated oils and into fermented tonics, always as one voice in a larger chord rather than a solo.

Good to know

Because Brihati is warming and drying, the tradition uses it where there is cold and damp to clear, and is more sparing with it where the body already runs hot or dry. Its real importance is as a team player: the Dashamula roots are valued for what they do together, and Brihati is one of the ten.

This entry sets out the classical Ayurvedic understanding of the herb. It is not medical advice, and anyone with a health condition should speak to a qualified practitioner.

Frequently asked

What is the Dashamula? It is the classical group of ten roots, five from trees and five from shrubs, brought together into one set that forms the base of many Ayurvedic preparations. Brihati is one of the five smaller-shrub roots.

Is Brihati the same as Kantakari? No, but they are close cousins. Both are thorny nightshades, both belong to the Dashamula, and the texts pair them as the “two Brihatis”. Kantakari is listed separately in this encyclopaedia.

Which part is used? The root. Brihati is gathered for its root above all, which is what enters the classical formulas.