Chitrakadi Vati

What it is

Chitrakadi Vati is a classical digestive tablet, and one of the better known gulikas set down in the Sharangadhara tradition. A gulika, also called a vati, is a tablet: herbs, salts and other fine ingredients ground together, bound and pressed into a small pill. The tradition values the tablet form because it keeps well over time and gives a steady, measured dose.

The name points to the plant at its heart. Chitraka is Plumbago zeylanica, a root the classical writers counted among the strongest of the warming, fire-kindling herbs, and adi means “and the rest.” So Chitrakadi reads as “Chitraka and the others,” naming the formula after its leading ingredient in the usual classical way.

What marks the blend is how sharply it leans towards the digestive fire. Around Chitraka it gathers a group of pungent spices, a pair of alkalis and three salts, all chosen for their warming, kindling character. It is, in the old sense, a samyoga, a careful combining, in which the parts are meant to work together on one task: the fire of digestion.

What Ayurveda uses it for

The classical texts record Chitrakadi Vati for the following:

• Agnimandya (a weak or sluggish digestive fire, and its foremost traditional use)
• Grahani (disturbed digestion and absorption)
• Ajirna (indigestion, food that lies undigested)
• Adhmana and Anaha (bloating and distension of the belly)
• Shula (griping pain and colic)
• Aruchi (loss of appetite and taste for food)
• Gulma (masses or hardness felt in the abdomen)

These are the traditional textual indications recorded in the classical literature. They set out how Ayurveda has long understood the preparation and are given for reference and study, not as statements of medical effect or as advice to treat any condition.

What is in it

The formula is built around Chitraka (Plumbago zeylanica), the warming root that gives it its name and much of its character. To this it adds a group of pungent spices that the tradition holds close to the digestive fire: Pippali and Pippalimula (long pepper and its root), Maricha (black pepper), Shunthi (dry ginger) and Chavya. These are the dipana and pachana herbs, the kindling and digesting spices.

Alongside the spices sit ingredients that sharpen the blend further. Hingu (asafoetida) and Amlavetasa are added for their carminative and sour, warming quality. Two alkalis, Yavakshara and Sarjikakshara, and three salts, Saindhava, Sauvarchala and Vida, complete the formula. Taken as a whole, the blend is pungent, light, dry and sharp, and decidedly warming, so the tradition regards it as pacifying Kapha and Vata while capable of raising Pitta.

How it is taken

Chitrakadi Vati is taken by mouth as a tablet. The classical practice is to take it before or with food, so that it is felt to meet the meal and set the digestion to work, and it is usually taken with a warm vehicle such as warm water. Because the blend is warming and sharp, the tradition reserves it for the sluggish, cold, heavy state it was made for rather than for general use.

It is taken in modest amounts and, in keeping with its purpose, over a stretch of days as a course rather than as a single dose.

Good to know

Chitrakadi Vati belongs to the sharp, kindling side of Ayurveda: a warming, pungent tablet made to rouse a weak fire and clear a sluggish digestion. Its very heat is the reason the tradition treats it with care, keeping it for the cold, heavy, slow-moving state it suits and away from conditions where there is already heat, since the formula can raise Pitta.

Kept dry, tablets of this kind hold for a long time, which is one of the reasons the classical writers favoured the vati form. As with all such preparations, the older texts place its use in the hands of one who knows the patient and the state of their digestion.

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

Frequently asked

Why is it named after Chitraka? Because Chitraka, the root of Plumbago zeylanica, is its leading ingredient and gives the blend much of its warming, fire-kindling character. Naming a formula after its chief herb, with adi meaning “and the rest,” is the usual way of the classical texts.

Why does the formula include salts and alkalis as well as spices? The salts and alkalis are chosen for the same reason as the spices: they add to the sharp, warming, digestive lean of the blend. Together with Chitraka and the pungent spices they are meant to act as one on the digestive fire.

Is it a warming or a cooling preparation? It is decidedly warming. That is the whole point of it, which is why the tradition counts it among the Kapha- and Vata-settling preparations and keeps it for cold, sluggish states rather than where there is already heat.