Some concoctions are made out of barks of the Ashoka tree to cure women's health problems. Botanists, however, dispute that these concoctions are not made out of original Ashoka trees.
In Ramayana, Ravana abducts Seeta and lodges her in a sanctuary called the Ashokavana— a forest locale that is populated by Ashoka trees. Now, this very tree has become the bone of contention between botanists and ayurvedic experts.
Ayurveda uses various natural ingredients, most of which are made up of barks, roots and leaves of various plants and trees. Some concoctions are made out of barks of the Ashoka tree to cure women’s health problems. Botanists, however, dispute that these concoctions are not made out of original Ashoka trees.
“The popular Ashokarishta available in the market is not a medicine made out of the original Ashoka tree’s bark, but from an exotic tree that has been mistaken for Ashoka tree,” revealed Dr LC Soans, a botanist who grows the original Ashoka trees in his farm in Moodbidri, 35 km from Mangalore.
“The original Ashoka tree has lot of branches, a thick canopy, and gives big ball of red flowers. Its bark is very bitter,” he said.
Saraca indica or Saraca asoca is the scientific terminology for Ashoka tree, but some producers of Ashokarishta extract the bark from a tree called Polyalthia longifolia pendula, which is an exotic variety infiltrated into India from Sri Lanka.
“I do not know how they could not distinguish between Saraca indica and Polyalthia pendula (also known as the Indian fir tree). The former has a thick canopy but the latter has a ramrod-like stem with leaves pointing downwards and gives greenish yellow flowers that look more like buds, but Saraca indica gives out a big bunch of red flowers. Its bark is thick and has a medicinal scent, but the Polyalthia longifolia pendula has a thin bark,” said Dr Soans.
“The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in its book, Useful Plants of India, also maintains that the Ashoka tree is totally different. In fact two German experts Stolz and Plebzt in 1868-70 had conducted a research on the medicinal qualities of Ashoka tree with the help of Indian Vaidyas (Ayurvedic experts),” said Amrut Malla, an expert in ayurvedic medicine.
“Polyalthia longifolia pendula has no medicinal values and those who consume ‘medicines’ created out of that tree will have no benefits. But those who have taken it need not despair as it is not harmful either,” he said.
Sources in the Government College of Indian Medicine Mysore agreed that there are many brands of ‘Ashokarishta’ and not all of them are produced out of the bark of the original Ashoka tree. Unfortunately, there is no regulation either to control or stop the production of Ashokarishta from the bark of Polyalthia longifolia pendula.
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