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Herb library · Herb · Justicia adhatoda (syn. Adhatoda vasica)

Vasaka (Malabar nut)

A bushy Indian shrub whose leaves are one of Ayurveda's chief cough herbs. The cough medicine bromhexine was made from one of its alkaloids, but the leaf itself has barely been studied in people.

Traditional use

Dutt's 1877 compilation of the Sanskrit medical writers records that the leaves and roots of vasaka were much used for cough, consumption, catarrhal fever and asthma, and that it was said no one with consumption need despair while the plant existed. Physicians gave the fresh leaf juice with honey and long pepper for cough, boiled the root with chebulic myrobalan and raisins, and made an electuary of the leaf juice with sugar, long pepper, ghee and honey. Vasaka syrups and leaf juice are still sold in India for coughs. The mucus-thinning cough drug bromhexine, sold since 1963, was derived from this plant; that is a drug made from one of its compounds, and its evidence does not carry over to vasaka leaf or syrup.

What studies show

  • Insufficient

    Cough and colds: no trial of vasaka on its own was found. The cough trials that included it tested a mixture with echinacea and eleuthero, so they cannot say what vasaka does alone.

  • Insufficient

    COVID-19: in one open-label trial, 50 adults with mild illness took a vasaka leaf extract (500 mg a day) for 14 days. They recovered, with no reported side effects, but there was no placebo group, so the trial cannot show whether vasaka made a difference.

Be careful of

Cautions

  • PregnancyNo safety information for pregnancy or breastfeeding was found in studies in people; avoid it then.
  • NoteSome Ayurvedic preparations include metals. The FDA warns that this makes some Ayurvedic products potentially harmful. Buy from makers that test for lead and mercury.
  • Ask a clinicianA cough that lasts more than a few weeks, brings up blood, or comes with fever and weight loss needs a clinician, not an herb. Talk with a clinician or pharmacist before using vasaka 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.

“This medicine was considered so serviceable in phthisis that it was said no man suffering from this disease need despair as long as the vásaka plant exists.”
Udoy Chand Dutt, The Materia Medica of the Hindus (1877), p. 214. See the page of The Materia Medica of the Hindus, p. 214 (opens in a new tab) · Read the full passage from The Materia Medica of the Hindus, p. 214
“The fresh juice or decoction of the leaves in doses of one tolá, is given with the addition of honey and long pepper in cough.”
Udoy Chand Dutt, The Materia Medica of the Hindus (1877), p. 214. See the page of The Materia Medica of the Hindus, p. 214 (opens in a new tab) · Read the full passage from The Materia Medica of the Hindus, p. 214

Sources

  1. Adhatoda vasica and Tinospora cordifolia extracts ameliorate clinical and molecular markers in mild COVID-19 patients: a randomized open-label three-armed study (2023) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  2. Randomized trial of a fixed combination (KanJang) of herbal extracts containing Adhatoda vasica, Echinacea purpurea and Eleutherococcus senticosus in patients with upper respiratory tract infections (2005) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  3. A reappraisal of the mucoactive activity and clinical efficacy of bromhexine (2017) — 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.