Capsule Bakuchi

Latin name: Psoralea corylifolia
Family: Papilionaceae
Common name: Babchi, Bakuchi, Somaraji
English name: Psoralea seeds

Habitat: Grows throughout the plains of central and east India. The black variety is commonly used today

Macroscopic identification: fruit dark brown, chocolate colored, ovoid in shape. Seeds are black color, flat, oily and odorless.
Parts used: seeds
Pharmacological action: Aromatic, antihelmentic, antibacterial, anti fungal, diuretic, diaphoretic, laxative, stimulant, aphrodisiac
Action and uses in Ayurveda: kapha-haram, rasayanam, ruksham, hrithyam, in meham, kushtam, jwaram, krimi, rakta-pittam.
Indications: leprosy, skin diseases
Photochemical:
The chief active principle of the seeds is an essential oil; and a fixed oil, a resin, and traces of a substance of alkaloidal nature. Furanocoumarins- psoralen,Flavonoids- bavachin, bakuchiol, , raffinose, and essential oil.

Properties and action:
Rasa: katu, tikta
Guna: ruksha, laghu
Virya: sita
Vipaka: katu
Karma: kusthara

Preparations: extract, powder, tincture, oil

Therapeutic classification index:

• Digestive system: it is used in Diarrhea, borborygmi, and abdominal pain
• Skin: it is used in alopecia (as tincture), psoriasis, eczema, and vitiligo- externally and internally.
• Genito-urinary system: Aphrodisiac, impotence, premature ejaculation. It is used in frequent urination, incontinence-strengthens urinary sphincter

Effect of Bakuchi on skin:
The oil has an irritant effect on the skin and mucus membrane. Its action on the undifferentiated protoplasm such as paramecium is quite marked. It has a powerful effect against the skin streptococci. On the voluntary muscle, the essential oil in high dilution has a distinct stimulant action. Saturated solutions of the oil injected intravenously have no effect on blood pressure. The essential oil, however, varies enormously in its effects on different persons. With the majority (95%) it causes only redness of the leucodermic patches, but in rest 5% cases there is extreme sensitivity to the oil, so much so that the blistering may be produced. The oil being an essential oil permeates through the epidermis to the prickle cells of the lymphatic and so it finds the way to sub capillaries and stimulates the cells situated there. The advantage of this oil over the skin irritants is that it does not produce desquamation or any changes of keratolytic nature resulting in loss of pigment of the epidermis. Bakuchi has action on both Roget's cells and melanoblastic cells of the skin.

Dose: powder 1-3 Gms
Capsule Bakuchi contains pure and concentrated Bakuchi
Dosage :one capsule twice a day, before meals.
Package size: 60 capsules.

References:
1. Dr.KM Nadkarni, The Indian Materia Medica, Vol.I, pg 1019
2. Prof P.V Sharma, Dravya Guna Vigyana, Vol II, pg 175-178
3. The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia Of India, Part I, Vol.I, pg 25