Picrorhiza
Kutki, katki, katula, bitter root; Sanskrit kutaki, katu-rohini; Marathi bal-kadu, ‘children’s bitter’; Picrorhiza kurroa Royle ex Benth.; in pharmacy Picrorhizae kurroae rhizoma et radix
- Known today as
- Picrorhiza kurroa, a plant of the alpine Himalaya from Kashmir to Sikkim, of the family Plantaginaceae (the Scrophulariaceae of the older books), whose root is the drug.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Earliest authority here
- Dymock, Warden, and Hooper, Pharmacographia Indica (1893)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online · GBIF · Wikidata
Caution. No European monograph sets out its safety, and none of the sources read for this entry reports on it.
Picrorhiza: what was it used for?
A bitter for the liver and the bowels. Dymock, Warden, and Hooper record that the Nighantas describe it as “digestive, bitter, pungent, dry, aperient, light and cold” and recommend it for worms, asthma, bile, phlegm, and fever; it was a favourite remedy in bilious dyspepsia with fever, given in decoction with liquorice, raisins, and neem bark, and was often prescribed for children with worms, whence its Marathi name, “children’s bitter.”
Picrorhiza: what does modern science say?
The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee declined to adopt a monograph on the root (public statement of 2015): it could find neither the recognised efficacy and safety required for well-established use nor evidence of thirty years of medicinal use, fifteen of them in the European Union.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Mechanism
- Not established in the sources read for this entry.
- Standing
- There is no European monograph: the European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee declined to adopt one (public statement of 2015).
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Public statement on Picrorhizae kurroae rhizoma et radix (Katula). EMA/HMPC/161476/2014, 28 January 2015. Read in full · the text read
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Picrorhiza: what lore surrounds it?
Muslim writers, Dymock, Warden, and Hooper note, gave katki or kutki as an Indian name for black hellebore and described that plant instead, a mistake that misled most European writers on Indian drugs.
Picrorhiza: what did the older authorities say?
- Dymock, Warden, and Hooper, Pharmacographia Indica (1893)
- The drug is the kutaki of the Sanskrit writers, who call it “the plant eaten by Dhanvantari,” the physician of the gods, produced at the churning of the ocean holding a cup of amrita in his hands, and the author of the Ayurveda. Chakradatta gives the powdered root with sugar and warm water as a gentle aperient.
Sources
- Dymock, W., Warden, C. J. H., & Hooper, D. (1893). Pharmacographia Indica, vol. 3, “Picrorhiza kurrooa.” Internet Archive, b20413415_003. Read in part · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Public statement on Picrorhizae kurroae rhizoma et radix (Katula). EMA/HMPC/161476/2014, 28 January 2015. Read in full · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 2 cited: 1 read in full, 1 read in part.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
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Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published October 17, 2026
- Chicago
“Picrorhiza.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 17, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/picrorhiza.
- MLA
“Picrorhiza.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 17 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/picrorhiza. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Picrorhiza. (2026, October 17). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/picrorhiza
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See Also
Drawing on the same sources: Dymock
Tribulus · Marking-nut electuary · Andrographis · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Pilewort · Periwinkle (the lesser periwinkle, a trailing evergreen with blue flowers) · Pilgrim badges and ampullae · Peppermint · Pink rock-rose · Peony (the kind formerly grown for its medicinal root) · Plantain (Plantago major) · Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium)
Historical description, not medical advice.
