Vaca

Botanical Name

Acorus Calamus

Family

Araceae

Sanskrit

Ugra Gandha, Golomi, Sadgrandha

English

Sweet Flag

Hindi

Vacha

Kannada

Baje

Malayalam

Vayambu

Telugu

Vasa

Tamil

Vasambu

Marathi

Vekhand

Distribution                                    

Cultivated In Wet Places In India.

Parts Used

Rhizome

Dose

Churna:125-500mg

Chemical Constituents

Acolamone, acorenone, acoramone, acorone, azulene, cadalene, calacorene, calamine, calamenole, calamone, eugenol, acoric acid etc

Ayurvedic Properties

Quality (Guna)

Laghu, Tikshna

Taste (Rasa)

Katu, Tikta

Metabolism (Vipaka)

Katu

Potency (Virya)

Ushna

Impact (Prabhava)

Lekhaniya, Medhya

Pharmacological Action

  • Hypotensive: this action helps in curing blood pressure related problems.
  • Its anticulvulsant action helps in curing epilepsy.
  • Carcinogenic property helps in curing different kinds of malignant and benign growths in the body.
  • It is an insecticidal so the fumes of the rhizome helps in warding off the insects and certain rodents from houses.
  • Antimicrobial and antibacterial property helps in preventinf inflammations and certain infections in the body.

Therapeutic Uses

  • Amlapitha: vaca powder is taken with honey and jaggery.
  • Apasmara: vaca powder should be taken with honey and ghee for 3 days with milk as anupana.
  • Sopha and vrddhi: the paste of vaca and sarsapa may be applied locally.
  • Vocal improvement: paste of vaca will be applied on tongue and swallowed to improve voice in kids.
  • Combination of vacha, shankhapushpi and brahmi with honey is very much helpful in epilepsy and mental retardation.
  • A pinch of vacha with a glass of warm water helps in digestive disorders like intestinal worms, flatulence and indigestion etc.

Some of the common formulations

  • Vacadi churna
  • Vacadi ghrita
  • Bala chaturbhadra churna
  • Vacavalehya.