What is Bikh-e-Sarphoka?

Bikh-e-Sarphoka is the dried root of the plant Tephrosia purpurea. Unani and Persian doctors use it as a single drug. "Bikh" means root.

In English it is often sold as wild indigo root. In Ayurveda, the same plant is called sharapunkha.

Unani doctors have used it mostly for problems they linked to the liver and spleen. They also used it for coughs, fevers and urinary trouble.

It is most often taken as a decoction (a drink made by boiling the root in water). Dried root powder is the other common form.

Here is the honest summary of the evidence. This plant has a long, well-recorded place in traditional practice. But almost all modern research is lab and animal work.

Long use tells you that people valued a remedy. It does not prove the remedy works, or that it is safe. Nothing here should be read as a promise of a result.

One warning about names. "Wild indigo root" is also used for a quite different plant, Baptisia tinctoria. Check the Latin name Tephrosia purpurea on any label before you buy.

How does Bikh-e-Sarphoka work?

No one has shown in people how this root works. So what follows is a theory, not a finding.

Lab and animal studies point to two groups of plant chemicals: flavonoids and rotenoids. These may lower inflammation (swelling and irritation in tissue). They may also lower oxidative stress (chemical damage inside cells).

Animal studies have looked at liver injury. They report less damage when the extract was given first.

In Unani theory the drug is hot and dry. It is said to open blockages of the liver and spleen. That is a traditional way to describe the drug, not measured biology.

What forms does Bikh-e-Sarphoka come in?

Bikh-e-Sarphoka is sold and made up in a few simple ways.

Dried cut root, boiled into a decoction (a drink made by simmering the root in water).

Dried root powder, sometimes taken with honey or warm water.

Compound Unani formulas, where the root is one part among many.

Water-and-alcohol (hydro-alcoholic) extracts and capsules from herb sellers. These rarely state a strength.

Avoid the seeds and the seed oil. Seeds of Tephrosia plants are used as fish poison in several countries. They are not a food or a medicine.

Where it comes from:

Tephrosia purpurea is a scrubby legume of dry ground. It grows across South Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa.

It is written up in both classic Unani and classic Ayurvedic texts. That is unusual for a minor herb.

Unani sources place it among the drugs for blockages of the liver and spleen. Ayurvedic sources call it sharapunkha and give it much the same role. They also use it for fever and cough.

In the same regions, people used the plant as a fish poison. They also grew it as a green manure crop.

What does Bikh-e-Sarphoka help with?

• Traditional use for liver complaints: This is the best-known use in Unani practice. The root was given for what doctors called a sluggish or blocked liver. Rat studies of chemical liver injury report less damage with the extract. No published human trial shows that it helps liver disease. Liver disease needs a doctor's diagnosis and blood tests, not a herb.
• Traditional use for an enlarged spleen: Unani and Ayurvedic texts both list the root for splenomegaly (an enlarged spleen). No human trial backs this up. An enlarged spleen is a sign of a serious problem. The cause may be an infection or a blood disorder. It always needs medical tests.
• Traditional use for cough and breathlessness: Root decoctions were given for chesty cough and asthma-type breathlessness. The support for this is traditional only. Do you have asthma or COPD (a long-term lung disease)? Keep taking your prescribed inhalers. Do not swap them for a herbal drink.
• Traditional use for fever: The root turns up in traditional fever mixtures. It is sometimes mixed with other bitter plants. Animal work has looked at how it calms inflammation (swelling and irritation). No human trial has tested it for fever. See a doctor for a fever above 39C. Also see a doctor for any fever that lasts more than three days.
• Traditional use for urinary complaints and stones: Traditional practice used it as a diuretic (something that makes you pass more urine). It was also used for gravel and stones. The evidence is limited to lab and animal reports on stone forming. Kidney stones and urine infections have good standard treatment. Do not treat them yourself.
• Traditional use on skin sores and boils: A paste of the leaves or root was put on boils, sores and insect bites. This use is external and traditional. There are no human trials. A skin infection that spreads, or feels hot and painful, needs antibiotics. A poultice (a paste laid on the skin) is not enough.

Which foods are rich in Bikh-e-Sarphoka?

This is a medicinal root, not a food. It is not an ingredient in any normal diet and the seeds are used as a fish poison, so do not eat any part of the plant as food.

What are the side effects of Bikh-e-Sarphoka?

• Nausea (feeling sick) and vomiting
• Stomach pain and diarrhoea
• Loss of appetite
• Dizziness
• Skin rash or itching, especially with the paste on skin
• Numbness or tingling, reported after large doses of rotenoid-containing plants
• Dark urine, yellow skin or yellow eyes, which can be signs of liver irritation

Good to know:

Most reports of upset are mild and settle when people stop. The bigger concern is not frequency but the type of chemical involved.

The root contains rotenoids, the same family as rotenone, which is used as a fish and insect poison. At high doses in animals these compounds damage the energy-producing parts of cells and can affect the nerves and the heart.

No safe upper limit has been established for people. Treat this as a herb to use sparingly and briefly, not daily and indefinitely, and stop at the first sign of jaundice (yellow skin or eyes), numbness or a racing or irregular heartbeat.

How much Bikh-e-Sarphoka should you take?

• Recommended daily: There is no dose proven safe or effective in people, because the human trials that would set one have not been done. Traditional Unani texts describe roughly 3 to 5 grams of dried root per day, simmered in water and drunk as a decoction. Commercial extracts vary widely and cannot be compared to that figure. If you choose to use it, start at the low end, use it under a practitioner who knows the plant, and never exceed a label dose.
• Best time of day: Traditionally taken once or twice a day, in the morning and evening. There is no evidence that timing changes anything.
• With or without food: Usually taken after food, which may reduce stomach upset and nausea (feeling sick). This is practical advice from traditional use, not a trial finding.
• Time to effect: Not known. No human study has measured how quickly, or whether, anything changes. Do not keep pushing the dose up if nothing happens.
• How long to take it: Keep any course short. Traditional use is for weeks, not months, and there is no safety data for long-term daily use in people. Stop and reassess after two to three weeks, and stop at once if you feel unwell.