The Salt Group (Lavana Varga)

The different varieties of salt such as the Saindhava, the Samudra, the Vida, the Sauvarchala, the Romaka and the Audbhidam (prepared from vegetable alkali), etc., should be successively deemed as more heat, Vayu, Kapham, and Pittam making, and more demulcent, sweeter and more purgative and diuretic, considered in the inverse order of enumeration.

Saindhava salt is beneficial to the eyes, palatable, relishing, light, appetising, demulcent, slightly sweet in digestion, spermatopoietic and cooling in its potency. It is one of the most potent auxiliaries in combating the action of the deranged humours of the body. The variety called the Samudram (sea-brine) is sweet in digestion, and not inordinately neat-making in its potency. It is not indigestible, but purgative, slightly demulcent, and does not inordinately generate the Pittam, and is good in attacks of colic pain (Shula). The variety known as Vida salt is a little alkaline (in its taste) and is appetising. It tends to produce a condition of dryness in the organism, and proves beneficial in cases of colic (Shula,) and in diseases affecting the heart. It imparts a relish to food, is sharp and heat-making in its potency, and restores the deranged bodily Vayu to its normal state (restoring or setting aflow the nerve-current by removing any obstruction). Sauvarchala salt is light of digestion, heat-making in its potency, and pungent in taste. It is appetising, has an agreeable aroma, removes any viscid-ness from the internal organism, and proves curative in cases of abdominal glands, colic pain and incarceration of scybala in the bowels. Romaka salt is sharp and intensely heat-making. Its action permeates the whole system immediately after its use, and is pungent and light of digestion. It subdues the Vayu, tends to increase the secretion of the internal organs, enters into the minutest capillaries of the body, and is purgative and diuretic. Audbhida salt is light, sharp, and heat-making in its potency.

It acts as a moistener to the internal organs, has a pungent bitter taste, and is charged with a small quantity of alkali. It permeates the minutest capillaries, and tends to restore the deranged Vayu to its normal condition. Gutika salt destroys the deranged Vayu and Kapham, and is vermifugal, appetising, digestant and purgative. It tends to aggravate the Pittam and acts as an internal liquefacient or antifat. The salt quarried from a salt mine situated at the foot of a hill (Shailamulaja), or from a sandy (Valukelam) or alkaline soil (Ushakshara) has a pungent taste, and helps the disintegration of Kapham, etc. (Chhedi). It is also called pungent (Katu) salt.

The Group Of Alkalis

The different varieties of alkali (Kshara) such as the Javakshara (Carbonate of potash), the Svarjikakshara, the Pakima and the Tankana cure abdominal glands, piles, mesenteric diarrhoea, and gravel and stone in the bladder. All these varieties of alkali should be regarded as possessed of digestant or stomachic properties. Their abuse is known to have brought about cases of haemoptysis. Of these, the varieties known as the Javakshara and Svarjikakshara are inflammatory as fire, and they tend to reduce Kapham, remove Vibondha (suppression of stool etc.), piles, and abdominal glands and prove curative in cases of enlarged spleen. They are anti-spermatopoietic. The alkali 67 known as Usharakshara is heat-making in its potency, and subdues the deranged Vayu. It tends to increase the slimy (mucous) secretions in the organs and is detrimental to the strength of the body. The variety called Pakima tends to reduce obesity, causes a free and increased discharge of urine, thus fully relieving the bladder of all its contents (lit: bladder-cleanser). The alkali known as the Tankanakshara (borax) tends to produce a condition of dryness in the organism, generates the Vayu, subdues the Kapham, and is appetising in its property. It is moreover known to bring about a derangement of the Pittam, and is sharp in its potency.