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Herb library · Herb · Solanum virginianum (syn. S. xanthocarpum)

Kantakari (yellow-berried nightshade)

A spiny, yellow-berried nightshade of India, one of the ten roots of the Ayurvedic dashamula and a traditional cough and asthma herb in Ayurveda and Siddha. Two small trials in people with asthma found a modest short-term effect on breathing.

Traditional use

Dutt's 1877 compilation of the Sanskrit medical writers records that the root was much esteemed for cough, asthma, catarrhal fever and pain in the chest, and that it is one of the ten roots of dashamula, used in a great many preparations. Physicians boiled the root with long pepper and honey for cough, and with rock salt and asafoetida for spasmodic cough. Siddha physicians of South India use the whole plant for breathing complaints, as the researchers who tested it in Chennai record.

What studies show

  • Limited

    Asthma: in two small studies in adults with mild to moderate asthma, 300 mg of the powdered whole plant improved breathing tests within hours and over 3 days. The effect was smaller than standard asthma medicines. The trials were small and short, run by one team, and compared the herb with asthma drugs rather than with a placebo.

Be careful of

Cautions

  • NoteIt is a nightshade; its berries are grown as a source of the alkaloid solasodine. Do not eat the berries or make home preparations of the plant.
  • ConditionAn herb is not a substitute for asthma medicine. Do not stop or cut back an inhaler or other asthma medicine to try it.
  • PregnancyNo safety information for pregnancy or breastfeeding was found; avoid it then.
  • NoteSome Ayurvedic preparations include metals. The FDA warns that this makes some Ayurvedic products potentially harmful.
  • Ask a clinicianTalk with a clinician or pharmacist before using this if you take prescription medicines, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are giving it to a child.

From the old books

What herbals and dispensaries of the past printed. History, in their words.

“The root of Solanum Jacquinii is much esteemed as an expectorant and is used in cough, asthma, catarrhal fever and pain in the chest.”
Udoy Chand Dutt, The Materia Medica of the Hindus (1877), p. 208. See the page of The Materia Medica of the Hindus, p. 208 (opens in a new tab) · Read the full passage from The Materia Medica of the Hindus, p. 208

Sources

  1. A pilot study on the clinical efficacy of Solanum xanthocarpum and Solanum trilobatum in bronchial asthma (J Ethnopharmacol, 1999) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  2. Further studies on the clinical efficacy of Solanum xanthocarpum and Solanum trilobatum in bronchial asthma (Phytother Res, 2004) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  3. Exploring phenotypic stability for berry yield of Solasodine rich germplasm accessions of Kantakari (Solanum virginianum L.), using AMMI stability model (Sci Rep, 2025) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  4. Ayurvedic Medicine: In Depth (opens in a new tab) · NCCIH · read September 25, 2026

Reviewed September 25, 2026.