Garden cress (Lepidium sativum)
Lepidium sativum
Ayurvedic Herbalism
Ayurvedic Herbalism

Garden cress

Lepidium sativum

Also known as pepperwort, halim, aliv, cress seed, Chandrashura, Chandrika, Charmahantri.

WarmingMoisteningTaste: PungentTaste: Bitter

Lepidium sativum is a fast growing annual of the mustard family with finely divided leaves and small white flowers, native to Egypt and southwest Asia and cultivated across India as a salad green and, above all, for its small reddish seeds. In Ayurveda the seed is Chandrashura, a warming, unctuous, strengthening seed for lactation, bone, vata and the weakness that follows childbirth, and it is a familiar ingredient of the sweet postpartum preparations of western and northern India. The seeds swell into a mucilage in water, which gives them a demulcent quality alongside their pungent warmth.

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GalactagogueNutritive tonicDemulcent (soaked seed)Bone healing support (traditional and preclinical)CarminativeExpectorantAntidiarrheal (mucilage)Anti-inflammatoryAntioxidantHypoglycemic (preclinical)Diuretic (mild)

Indications what the tradition reached for it in

Specific indications

A new mother two weeks after delivery who is tired, cold, aching in the back and not producing enough milk, for the seed cooked in milk with jaggery

A slow healing fracture or a postmenopausal woman with thinning bone and vata dryness, for the seed balls with sesame and jaggery

A cold, phlegmatic patient with a lingering cough and poor appetite, for the warm decoction

Loose stools alternating with dryness in a vata patient, where the soaked mucilaginous seed both binds and soothes

Safety

Pregnancy: Avoid medicinal doses in pregnancy: the seed is a traditional emmenagogue and showed uterotonic activity in animal tissue, and no published safety class is known to us; the salad leaf as food is fine.

The record lists 7 contraindications; open the plate in the library to read them in full.

In practice

The Ayurvedic physician gives Chandrashura chiefly to women after childbirth and to anyone whose bones and back need strengthening. A spoon of seeds soaked and cooked in milk with jaggery, taken morning and evening, is the classical galactagogue and postpartum restorative, often combined with Shatavari, Methika (fenugreek) and Ashwagandha.

In Ayurveda

Rasa: katu (pungent), tikta (bitter). Virya: ushna (heating). Vipaka: katu (pungent). Guna: laghu (light), snigdha (unctuous), picchila (slimy when soaked). Dosha: pacifies vata and kapha; aggravates pitta in excess. Karma: balya (strengthening); stanyajanana (promotes lactation); asthisandhanakara (knits bone); vatahara (pacifies vata); kaphahara (reduces kapha); deepana (kindles digestion); shothahara (reduces swelling); artavajanana (promotes menstruation); vrishya (aphrodisiac); grahi (binds the bowel, the soaked seed); kasahara (relieves cough). Classical indications: stanyakshaya (insufficient breast milk); asthibhagna (fractures); vatavyadhi (vata disorders, low back and joint pain); daurbalya (weakness, especially postpartum); atisara (diarrhea); pravahika (dysentery); hikka (hiccup); kasa and shvasa (cough and dyspnea); artavakshaya (scanty menses); shotha (swelling); kushtha (skin diseases, topical). The small reddish brown seeds are the drug, soaked to a mucilaginous mass and cooked in milk (kshirapaka) for lactation and postpartum strength, powdered as churna with jaggery or made into sweet balls for bone healing and vata, decocted for cough and diarrhea, and pounded into a paste for swellings and skin. The leaves are eaten as a salad green. Classical formulations: Chandrashura churna, Chandrashura kshirapaka, Chandrashura laddu (postpartum sweet with jaggery and ghee), Chandrashura kwatha, Chandrashura lepa (topical paste). Described in: Bhavaprakasha Nighantu, Raja Nighantu, Dhanvantari Nighantu, Kaiyadeva Nighantu, Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India.

Dosing as the sources wrote it

PreparationAs writtenMetric
Churna1-3 g powdered seed twice daily with jaggery or warm water1000-3000 mg
Kshirapaka50-100 mL milk decoction of 3-6 g seed once or twice daily50-100 mL
Soaked seed5-10 g seed soaked in water or milk taken once daily5000-10000 mg
Kwatha30-60 mL decoction twice daily30-60 mL
Lepa, topical10-20 g seed paste applied to swellings or sprains10000-20000 mg

Doses are reproduced from the sources for practitioners and are not a recommendation for any person.

From the sources

Overview. Lepidium sativum is a fast growing annual of the mustard family with finely divided leaves and small white flowers, native to Egypt and southwest Asia and cultivated across India as a salad green and, above all, for its small reddish seeds. In Ayurveda the seed is Chandrashura, a warming, unctuous, strengthening seed for lactation, bone, vata and the weakness that follows childbirth, and it is a familiar ingredient of the sweet postpartum preparations of western and northern India. The seeds swell into a mucilage in water, which gives them a demulcent quality alongside their pungent warmth.

Clinical Notes. The Ayurvedic physician gives Chandrashura chiefly to women after childbirth and to anyone whose bones and back need strengthening. A spoon of seeds soaked and cooked in milk with jaggery, taken morning and evening, is the classical galactagogue and postpartum restorative, often combined with Shatavari, Methika (fenugreek) and Ashwagandha.

Ayurvedic Profile. Rasa: katu (pungent), tikta (bitter). Virya: ushna (heating). Vipaka: katu (pungent). Guna: laghu (light), snigdha (unctuous), picchila (slimy when soaked). Dosha: pacifies vata and kapha; aggravates pitta in excess.

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