Chapter 8 - Symptoms and treatment of Amlapitta (acidity and biliousness)

Its causes and symptoms:—

The pitta or bile is sometimes putrefied by taking of food or drinks incongenial by combination (see page 9, vol. IV), impure or dirty food, food classed as bidahi (see page 7, vol. IV), and those items of food-stuff which naturally increase pitta (such as wine and other fermented materials, sours, pungents, mutton, etc.). This putrefaction of the bile gives rise to acidity and biliousness.

Note: The term “pitta” is generally used to mean (1) animal heat and (2) that part of the blood which is vitiated by an excess of animal heat and is called bile. Homo part of this bile accumulates itself in a bladder in the belly, but much of it remains mixed with the blood.

The following are the indications of amlapitta:—indigestion, fatigue, nausea, belching with bitter and sour taste, heaviness of the body, burning sensation in the heart and throat, and aversion to food.

Downward Amlapitta.

This disease (in advanced stages) is sometimes indicated by the following symptoms:—occasional discharge of stool of different kinds, combined with thirst, heating sensation, loss of consciousness, giddiness, nausea, bilious patches on the skin, called “kotha”, loss of digesting power, standing of hairs on ends, perspiration, and yellowishness of the skin.

Upward Amlapitta.

It is also sometimes indicated by the following symptoms:—vomiting, intensely sour in taste, coloured grey, yellow, blue, black, reddish, or red; or vomiting of substance as slippery and transparent as water in which raw meat has been kept immersed for sometime, combined with mucus, and having all sorts of taste (viz. bitter, pungent, astringent, sour, saline, and sweet).

Occasionally the disease is indicated by some of the following symptoms:—just after the food is putrefied or oven before taking any food, vomiting of sour and bitter taste combined, belching of a similar taste, heating sensation felt in the throat, heart and sides of the belly; pain in the head, heating sensation in the hands and feet, much aversion to food, fever, accumulation of phlegm vitiated with pitta, and all sorts of skin diseases.

Treatment of Amlapitta: A few herbal remedies.

(a) At first, the patient may drink the juice or decoction of leaves of patola and nimba, mixed with asafoetida, honey, and rock-salt, (b) The upward amlapitta should be treated, first of all, by vomiting caused by the juice or decoction of the leaves of patola and nimba, which, in case of excess of phlegm, may be mixed with madana fruit, honey, and rock-salt, (c) The downward amlapitta may be treated by purgation, caused by powdered roots of tribrit and honey, mixed with the juice or decoction of amalaki. (d) Amlapitta, cough, asthma, and vomiting may be cured by the cooled decoction of vasaka, guduchi, and kantakari, mixed with honey, (e) Amlapitta may be pacified by taking powdered pippali mixed with honey, (f) It may also be cured by drinking, in the afternoon, of the juice of jambira (big lime fruit).

Kusmanda Khanda.

Four hundred tolas, each, of the juice of kusmanda and cow’s milk, add thirty two tolas of powdered amalaki are to he boiled together by mild heat till the whole thing is condensed. This compound is then to be mixed with thirty two tolas of sugar and two tolas of aconite. This medicine cures amlapitta. (Dose, one fourth of a tola to half a tola, a day).

Iatro-chemical treatment of amlapitta.

Amlapittantaka rasa.

One part, each, of incinerated mercury, copper, and iron, and three parts of powdered haritaki are to be mixed together, and made into pills, six raktis in weight, each, to be taken with honey.

Sarvatobhadra-lauha rasa.

Four tolas, each, of iron, copper, and mica, one tola of purified mercury, two tolas of sulphur, one tola of copper pyrites, the same quantity of realger, one and half tola of purified shilajata, one tola of purified guggulu, and one fourth tola, each, of vidanga, bhallataka, roots of chitraka, roots of white arka, bark of the roots of hastikarna palasha, talamuli, punarnava, musta, guruchi, nagabala, chakramarda, mundiri, bhringa-raja, kesha-raja, shatabari, briddha-dara, triphala, and trikatu are to be rubbed together with clarified butter and honey, and kept in an earthen pot in which clarified butter has already been kept for sometime. Dose, six raktis, a day, to commence with (which may gradually be increased to one fourth of a tola, a day).

Kshudha-pabodhana rasa.

One tola, each, of mercury, sulphur, mica, jamani, trikatu, triphala, shatapuspa, chavya, jira, black jira, punarnava, bacha, danti, roots of trivrit, ghantakarna, dandotpala (mandukaparni?), shyama-lata, and anantamula, and two tolas of mandura are to be rubbed together with ginger juice, and made into pills (say, six raktis in weight, each), to be taken with honey, every morning. A little of bhaktabari or jali (see page 381, Vol. III) is to be drunk after taking the medicine. This medicine cures amlapitta, enlargement of spleen, colic felt at the time of digestion of food, asthma, intestinal obstruction, rheumatism, and cough.

Panchadana rasa.

Four tola’s of pure copper foil or copper wire are to be smeared with four tola's of kajjali (or black powder formed by rubbing together two tola's, each, of sulphur and mercury) dissolved with a little of water or juice of betel leaves or of ginger. When dried, the copper is to be put inside a crucible or puta (made of two earthen basins) in such a way as to be completely surrounded with a mixture of the five different kinds of salt (see page 283 Vol. III). The crucible or puta, as the case may be, is then to be heated by Gajaputa. Four tola's of this copper is then to be powdered finely and mixed with four tola's, each, of mercury, sulphur, iron, mica, jamani, shata-puspa, trikatu, triphala, tribrita, chavya, roots of danti, roots of apamarga, jira, and black jira, and two tola’s, each, of ghantakarna, mana, roots of pippali, roots of chitraka, and asthisanhara. These are then to be rubbed together with the juice of ginger, and made into pills, six raktis in weight, each. This medicine cures amlapitta, indigestion, colic felt at the time of digestion of food, swelling due to anemia, anemia, anaha, enlargement of speen, gulma, and udara, Diet, nutritious and heavy food, milk, and soup of meat,

Lilabilasha rasa.

Equal quantities of mercury, sulphur, mica, copper, and iron are to be rubbed together, for three days, with the juices or decoctions of amalaki and bibhitaki, and then with a little of the juice of bhringaraja, and made into pills, six raktis in weight, each, to be taken with honey. This medicine cures amlapitta, vomiting, colic, and heating sensation in the heart. Diet, milk mixed with the iuice of kusmanda, amalaki and sugar.

Lila-pramoda rasa.

One part, each, of mercury, sulphur, copper, mica, and silver are to be rubbed together for three hours, and heated by Laghuputa. A decoction is to be made by boiling one part of bibhitaki, two parts of amalaki, and three parts of haritaki with forty-eight parts of water, reduced to six parts by boiling. The compound consisting of mercury, etc. is to be subjected to bhavana for twenty five times with the decoction, prepared every time in, the above-mentioned way. The compound is next to be subjected to bhavana, for twenty-five times, with the juice of bhringaraja. This medicine cures amlapitta, if taken in doses of five raktis, each, with honey.

Kshudhanidhi rasa.

Four tolas, each, of mercury, iron, sulphur, trikatu, triphala vacha, jamani, shatapushpa, chavya, jira, and black jira, and two tolas, each, of ghantakarna, punarnava, mana, roots of pippali, indrajava, kesharaja, padma-guruchi, dandotpala (mandukaparni?), trivrit, danti, jamatri (jambu? or suryavarta?), red sandal, bhringaraja, apamarga, leaves of patola, and mandukaparni are to be rubbed together with the juice of ginger, and made into pills, six raktis in weight, each, to be taken early in the morning (with a few drops of honey), A little of bhaktabari or jali (see page 381, Vol, III) is to be taken just after taking this medicine. This medicine cures all sorts of indigestion, amlapitta, bhasmakagni, and colic felt at the time of digestion of food. All sorts of food, sweet in

Baryanna rasa.

One tola, each, of mica, mandura (rust of iron of more than sixty years’ standing, duly incinerated), vidanga, chavya, trikatu, triphala, kesha-raja, roots of danti, musta, roots of pippali, roots of chitraka, roots of ghantakarna, mana, shurana, roots of brihati, roots of tribrit, roots of suryavarta, and roots of punarnava, and four and half tola, each, of mercury and sulphur are to be rubbed together with ginger juice, and made into pills, six raktis, each. This medicine cures amlapitta, aversion to food, grahani, piles, jaundice, fistula, swelling due to anemia, gulma, colic at the time of digestion of food, slowness of digesting heat, leprosy, senile decay, asthma, cough, and jaundice. Diet, boiled rice mixed with water, meat, curd, kanji, butter milk, fish, tamarind, and food prepared with oil. The following are to he avoided at the time of taking this medicine;—shringata (trapa bispinosa), bilva, molasses, kanchta, cocoanut, milk, and all sorts of peas and beans.

Kshudhabati batika.

Eight tolas of mica, four tolas of iron, and two tolas of mandura are to be mixed together, and subjected to heat by sthalipaka (see page 43, Vol. III), for three times, vis. (1) with the juices or decoctions of mandukaparni, vashira (white suryabarta), and talamuli; (2) with the juices or decoctions of shatavari, bhringaraja, kesharaja, and thorny tanduliyaka; and (3) with the juices or decoctions of triphala and bhadra-musta. These are then to be powdered very fine and mixed with a kajjali or black powder made of one tola, each, of mercury and sulphur, and two tolas, each, of the following finely powdered and sifted by means of a piece of cloth.;—bacha, chavya, jamani, jira, black jira, shatapuspa, trikatu, musta, vidanga, roots of pippali, roots of apamarga, roots of trivrit, roots of chitraka, roots of danti, white suryavarta, bhringaraja, mana, ghantakarna, dandotpala, (manduka-parni?), kesharaja, and kalikankara (kelekonra in Bengali), and six tolas of triphala (i.e., two tolas, each, of haritaki, amalaki, and bibhitaki). All these are to be rubbed together in an iron pot for three hours in the sun with ginger juice, and subjected to bhavana with the same juice. This process is to be performed for three days. The compound is then to be rubbed again with ginger juice and made into pills, three raktis in weight, each. Three such pills are to be taken in the morning with jali (see page 381, Vol. III). Diet, boiled rice with jali or kanji and other articles of food stuff desired, except sweets, milk, and cocoannt. This medicine cures amlapitta, colic felt at the time of digestion of food, jaundice, gulma, swelling due to anemia, udara-roga, diseases affecting the rectum, cough, dullness of the digesting heat, aversion to food, enlargement of the spleen, asthma, anaha, rheumatism, and hoarseness,

Tamra druti.

A kajjali or black powder is to be prepared by rubbing together one tola of mercury and two tolas of sulphur in a stone mortar. This powder is to be rubbed with lime juice and turned semi-liquid, with which is to be mixed four tolas of a very fine foil or wire made of absolutely pure copper, cut into pieces. The mortar containing these materials is then to be exposed to the intense heat of the sun for three hours, with the result that the copper will be liquefied. Dose, one rakti, to commence with, and increased gradually, to six raktis, to be taken with a few drops of honey and clarified butter. Buttermilk or dhanyamla is to be drunk after taking this medicine. Diet to be taken with boiled shali rice of more than one year’s standing, after the medicine is digested. This medicine cures amlapitta, cough, waste, piles, jaundice, anemia, leprosy, hemoptysis, baldness, shula, and many other diseases. One who takes this medicine every day keeps a good health, and lives at least for a hundred years.

Diet and actions salutary in amlapitta:—

In case of upward amlapitta (acidity and biliousness), vomiting should be resorted to, at first; and in case of downward amlapitta, purgation is considered useful, before commencement of treatment. In case of amlapitta with upward and downward tendencies, it is desirable, first of all, to let the patient take a light diet for a few days, and then to have recourse to a special kind of douche called “niruha” (see Bhavaprakasha). The following are salutary at all stages of the disease:—shali rice, barley, wheat, and mudga of one to three year’s standing; soup of meat of animals called jangala (see Bhavaprakasha); water boiled and cooled, sugar, honey, and shaktu (barley fried and then powdered), karkota, karabella, patola, hilamochika, tender leaves of the cane plant, kusmanda of long standing, flower of banana, vastuka, kapittha, pomegranates, amlaki, and other bitters; all sorts of food and drinks having the property of pacifying kapha and pitta.

Food and deeds considered injurious in amlapitta:—

Rice, wheat, barley, and mudga gram—of recent growth, articles of food-stuff incongenial by combination, food having the property of increasing pitta, suppression of calls of nature in respect of stools, urine, vomiting, and sneezing; eating of sesamum seeds, dhanyamla (see page 380, Vol. III)^[1] salt in excess, sours, pungents, heavy food, curd, and wine.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Except at the time of taking such medicines as baryanna rasa.