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Shatavari

The root of an Indian asparagus, long used in Ayurveda for women's health and to support breast milk. Evidence for milk supply is very uncertain overall, with one recent small trial reporting a benefit.

Traditional use

A revered Ayurvedic herb, called Satávari in Sanskrit. Nineteenth-century writers record the root described as sweet, cooling, strengthening and a galactagogue (a substance taken to increase breast milk); the tubers were also candied and eaten as a sweet, and the root went into medicated oils. Dutt's 1877 compilation from Sanskrit medical works explains the other Sanskrit name, Satamuli, “possessing a hundred roots”, and records that Hindu physicians gave the fresh root juice with honey for bilious indigestion and made it into a medicated butter, Satávari ghrita, with milk. Today shatavari is sold mainly for breastfeeding and for women's health.

Traditional energetics

What studies show

  • Limited

    Breast milk supply: a 2020 Cochrane review of 41 trials of milk-supply aids, shatavari among them, rated the evidence for natural products low to very low certainty and was very uncertain how much, if at all, they help. A 2025 trial in 113 women in the first 72 hours after birth reported more milk with shatavari root extract than with placebo; it has not yet been repeated.

Be careful of

Cautions

  • NoteNo side effects were reported in the 2025 trial, which lasted only 72 hours. The Cochrane review found little reporting of side effects for any milk-supply product, so long-term safety is unknown.
  • PregnancyIt is sold for breastfeeding, but safety for the baby has not been well studied. NCCIH advises talking with your clinician before using Ayurvedic products while pregnant or nursing.
  • NoteIf milk supply is a worry, Cochrane advises first looking at feeding frequency, latch and the health of mother and baby.
  • NoteSome Ayurvedic preparations include metals. The FDA warns that this makes some Ayurvedic products potentially harmful, and a 2015 survey found high lead or mercury levels in some of the supplements tested.
  • 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 Sanskrit name satamuli (that is possessing a hundred roots), is in allusion to the numerous fusiform tubers of this plant. These are regarded as cooling, demulcent, diuretic, tonic and aphrodisiac, and are used both internally and in the preparation of several medicated oils.”
Udoy Chand Dutt, The Materia Medica of the Hindus (1877), p. 260. See the page of The Materia Medica of the Hindus, p. 260 (opens in a new tab) · Read the full passage from The Materia Medica of the Hindus, p. 260
“Both plants are considered to be heavy and cold, sweet, demulcent, galactogogue, tonic, and strengthening, and to remove bilious and rheumatic humors, blood diseases, and swellings; they are used both internally and in the preparation of several medicated oils. The tubers are candied and eaten as a sweetmeat.”
William Dymock, C. J. H. Warden and David Hooper, Pharmacographia Indica (1893), vol. 3, p. 483. See the page of Pharmacographia Indica, vol. 3, p. 483 (opens in a new tab) · Read the full passage from Pharmacographia Indica, vol. 3, p. 483

Sources

  1. Oral galactagogues (natural therapies or drugs) for increasing breast milk production in mothers of non-hospitalised term infants (Cochrane review, 2020) (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  2. Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus Willd) root extract for postpartum lactation: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study (2025) (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  3. Ayurvedic Medicine: In Depth (opens in a new tab) · NCCIH · read September 25, 2026

Reviewed September 25, 2026.