Kadali: Benefits, Uses & Dosage

You probably have a bunch of bananas on your counter right now, and Ayurveda treats that ordinary fruit as a genuine medicine. Kadali is the Sanskrit name for the banana or plantain plant (botanical name Musa sapientum Linn.), and the classical texts use nearly every part of it: the ripe fruit, the green unripe fruit, the stem, the flower and even the leaves.

What makes Kadali distinctive is that each part does a different job. The Bhavaprakash Nighantu, a classical herbal encyclopedia, describes the ripe fruit as sweet, heavy and satisfying, but difficult to digest in large quantities. The raw green banana is astringent and used for diarrhea and dysentery. The juice pressed from the banana stem is a well-known remedy for kidney stones and urinary complaints, and the flowers are cooked as a vegetable and used in diabetes.

The same text mentions two main kinds: the cooking banana (Musa paradisiaca) and the dessert banana (Musa sapientum). Other Sanskrit names include Rambha, Mocha and Ambusara, and in Hindi it is Kela. Banana leaves have a practical role too: they are used as plates and for wrapping food, and the Sushruta Samhita uses them to wrap medicinal preparations.

Rasa (Taste): Unripe — astringent; Ripe — sweet. Virya: Cooling. Vipak: Unripe — pungent; Ripe — sour. Dosha: Unripe increases vata, decreases pitta and kapha. Ripe decreases vata, increases pitta and kapha. Aphrodisiac; energizes muscle, fat, nerve and reproductive tissues.

Precautions: Do not take liquids until at least an hour after eating a banana. Do not eat bananas at night, with milk, or with yogurt. Do not eat bananas when there is fever, edema, vomiting or cough with mucus and runny nose.

• Emotional/obsessive eating, hypoglycemia, constipation, muscle cramps: 1 banana chopped with 1 teaspoon ghee and a pinch of cardamom.
• Burning urination with insomnia, constipation and acidic pH: Eat 1 or 2 bananas with a pinch of cumin powder between meals.
• Dry cough with chest pain: 1 or 2 bananas with 1 teaspoon honey and 2 pinches ground black pepper, 2 or 3 times a day.
• Muscular weakness or muscle wasting: 2 bananas, 5 fresh figs and 5 fresh dates chopped with a spoonful or two of honey plus 2 pinches ginger powder — a whole meal tonic.
• Chronic bronchial asthma: Insert about 7 cloves into a peeled banana and keep overnight. Next morning eat the banana and cloves. One hour later, drink 1 cup hot water with 1 teaspoon honey to give energy to the lungs and reduce wheezing.
• Diarrhea: 2 green, chopped bananas with 1 teaspoon ghee and 2 pinches ginger powder. Drink 1 cup hot water an hour later.
• Excess urination (diabetes): 1 unripe banana with ½ cup bitter melon juice, once a day.
• Hiccoughs: 2 chopped bananas mixed with 1 teaspoon ghee, 2 teaspoons honey and 2 pinches ginger powder.

Kadali's benefits follow from its classical profile. It is sweet in taste (Madhura Rasa), heavy (Guru) and unctuous or oily (Snigdha) in quality, cold in potency (Sheeta Virya), and sweet in its post-digestive effect (Madhura Vipaka), the effect a substance has after digestion is complete. The plant is rich in carbohydrates, potassium and vitamins A, B and C.

Strength and Tissue Building

The Bhavaprakash Nighantu lists three actions (Karma) for Kadali: strengthening (Balya), aphrodisiac (Vrishya) and thirst-quenching (Trishnanigrahana). Its sweet, heavy, unctuous nature is what makes it nourishing.

Ayurvedic practitioners describe ripe banana as energizing muscle, fat, nerve and reproductive tissue. A traditional tonic for muscle weakness and wasting combines two bananas with five fresh figs, five fresh dates, a spoonful or two of honey and a little ginger powder, eaten as a whole meal. Kadali is also linked to general weakness and debility.

Urinary Health

Banana stem juice is the part most associated with the urinary tract. The Bhavaprakash Nighantu calls it a well-known remedy for kidney stones and urinary disorders, at a dose of 1 to 2 tola (a classical unit of weight).

The Charaka Samhita (Chikitsa Sthana, Chapter 26) records Kadali juice with small cardamom and honey as helpful in painful urination. For burning urination with constipation, a home remedy is one or two ripe bananas with a pinch of cumin between meals. See also Kadali for frequent urination during pregnancy.

Digestion: Diarrhea and Constipation

The two stages of the fruit work in opposite directions. Unripe banana is astringent, and the Bhavaprakash Nighantu names it for diarrhea and dysentery. A home recipe is two chopped green bananas with a teaspoon of ghee and two pinches of ginger powder, followed an hour later by a cup of hot water.

Ripe banana, on the other hand, is used for constipation. One banana chopped with a teaspoon of ghee and a pinch of cardamom is the traditional recipe. The same preparation is used for hiccups with honey and ginger added.

Blood Sugar and Cravings

Ripe banana with ghee and cardamom is also the traditional recipe for low blood sugar, muscle cramps and emotional or obsessive eating. More on that in Kadali for overeating.

For diabetes with excess urination, the remedy uses the unripe fruit instead: one green banana with half a cup of bitter melon juice, once a day. The Bhavaprakash Nighantu also notes the flowers are used in diabetes.

Respiratory Support

For a dry cough with chest pain, one or two bananas are taken with a teaspoon of honey and two pinches of black pepper, two or three times a day. For chronic bronchial asthma, a traditional remedy is to push about seven cloves into a peeled banana, leave it overnight, eat both in the morning, and drink hot water with honey an hour later.

Note that this is a dry-cough remedy. Bananas are avoided when cough comes with mucus and a runny nose.

Kadali is mostly taken as food, so the main decision is which part to use. Ripe fruit for nourishment and dry, depleted conditions; green fruit for loose stools; stem juice for urinary complaints. The classical dose given in the Bhavaprakash Nighantu is simply "fruit as food" and 1 to 2 tola of stem juice.

Vehicles and pairings

The vehicle (Anupana), meaning the substance a remedy is taken with, changes what banana does. Ghee and cardamom make the ripe fruit easier to digest. Honey and black pepper point it toward the lungs, and ginger warms the green fruit for digestion.

Timing rules

Wait at least an hour after eating a banana before you drink liquids. Do not eat bananas at night, and do not combine them with milk or yogurt. These timing rules apply to the fruit; our sources do not give the same rules for stem juice.

Banana is a food, and for most people it is very safe. The cautions in Ayurveda are about when and how you eat it, not about toxicity.

When to avoid bananas

• During fever, edema (fluid swelling), vomiting, or a cough with mucus and runny nose.
• At night.
• In large quantities if your digestion is weak. The Bhavaprakash Nighantu notes the ripe fruit is heavy and difficult to digest in excess.

Food combinations to avoid

Ayurvedic food-combining guidance lists banana as incompatible with milk, yogurt, corn, egg and radish. Poorly combined foods are said to produce Ama, the sticky, undigested residue Ayurveda sees at the root of many problems. That rules out the common banana milkshake and banana with yogurt.

Dosha effects

Ripe banana calms Vata but can increase Pitta and Kapha. Green banana works the other way: it increases Vata and decreases Pitta and Kapha. If you run hot or congested, go easy on ripe bananas.

Medical conditions

Ripe banana is a sweet, carbohydrate-rich fruit. If you have diabetes or take glucose-lowering medication, check with your doctor before using it therapeutically. Kidney stones and painful or burning urination need a proper medical diagnosis first. Use stem juice alongside that care, not instead of it. Our sources do not record specific drug interactions or overdose signs for Kadali.

Kadali usually comes up next to other food-tier remedies for digestion, urinary comfort and cravings. Here is how it compares with the herbs it is most often paired with or weighed against.

Pregnancy & Nursing

Banana stem is treated as a food rather than a drug, and fresh stem juice is used for frequent urination during pregnancy. It is best in the second and third trimesters. In the first trimester, the cooked stem vegetable is gentler if the juice triggers nausea.

Skip bananas during strong morning sickness, vomiting or edema. Burning urination in pregnancy needs a same-day check for urinary infection. Our sources say nothing specific about nursing, so treat banana as ordinary food and ask your practitioner before using it as a remedy.

Children

Our sources do not give child-specific doses for any Kadali preparation. Ripe banana as ordinary food is part of most children's diets. Apply the same food rules as for adults: not at night, not with milk or yogurt, and not during fever or a mucus cough. Ask a pediatrician or qualified practitioner before using stem juice in a child.

Elderly

The strengthening action (Balya) and the traditional banana, fig and date tonic for muscle weakness and wasting make Kadali useful for older adults losing strength. Because the ripe fruit is heavy and hard to digest in large amounts, keep portions modest if digestion is slow. Take it with ghee and cardamom or a little ginger.

Athletes

Ripe banana with ghee and cardamom is the traditional recipe for muscle cramps, and the plant is rich in potassium and carbohydrates. The fig and date tonic is described as a whole meal for building muscle. The thirst-quenching action (Trishnanigrahana) also fits active people, though remember the one-hour wait before drinking after eating banana.