Brahmi is a creeping annual and spreads along the banks of rivers. It is a water-loving plant. Brahmi literally means the ‘energy or shakti of Brahman’. It is a good nervous system tonic.
Benefits of Brahmi: Improves memory, intelligence, intestinal disease, hypochondria, fever, liver disease, skin diseases, arthritis, epilepsy, depression, cough, insomnia, liver enlargement, hair loss, lymph gland enlargement, tetanus, weakness, nervous disorders.
Action: Alterative, diuretic, febrifuge, nervine, rejuvenative.
Scientific name: Bacopa monnieri
Useful part: Leaves.
Dosage: 2–6g per day dried or 5–30ml.
Energetics
Rasa (taste): Bitter, sweet
Vırya(energy): Cooling
Vipaka (post-digestive effect): Sweet
Guna (quality): Light, flowing(sara/laxative)
Dosa effect: VPK=, V+ in excess
Dhatu (tissue): All tissues, especially plasma, blood, nerve
Srotas(channel): Circulatory,digestive, nervous, excretory
Description: It is a creeping annual, prostrate, juicy,succulent, glabrous annual herb rooting at the nodes with numerous ascending branches.Leaves are simple, opposite, decussate, sessile, obovate-oblong or spatulate, entire, fleshy. Flowers are pale blue or whitish. Fruits are ovoid, acute, 2-celled, 2-valved capsules.
Classical and common names
Ayurvedic: Brahmi, Sarasvati
Hindi: Barami, Jalnim
Bengali: Boihim-sak
Malayalam: Brahmi, Nirbrahmi
Tamil: Nirpirami, Piramiyapundu
Kannada, Marathi: Nirbrahmi
Botanical classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Scrophuariaceae
Genus: Bacopa
Species: Bacopa monnieri