Astringent Taste

Lastly, the food enters the ascending colon. At this stage the astringent taste becomes predominant and makes the food material solid, owing to the Earth and Air elements. The astringent taste entering into the plasma makes the person feel light.

A combination of vata and pitta discriminate essential and nonessential food material. The bitter and astringent tastes help to improve the absorption and stimulate the movement of the colon via apana vata. When the solid wastes pass into the rectum, vata stimulates mass peristalsis (muscle contractions) to evacuate the bowels.

The entire digestive process requires about six to eight hours, and the food has gone through different stages according to the changes in various tastes. Very subtle digestion then occurs as nourishment arrives at and is used by the cells of plasma, blood, bones, fat, muscle, nerves and reproductive system. With the help of yet another pitta "fire" or agni, this digested food is further altered at the cellular level into the pure energy of consciousness and nourishes the mind.

Astringent taste (kashaya) is derived from Air and Earth elements and is cooling, drying, and heavy. It reduces pitta and kapha but increases vata. Examples include unripe banana, pomegranate, chickpeas, green beans, yellow split peas, okra, goldenseal, turmeric, lotus seed, alfalfa sprouts, mango seed, arjuna, alum, and most raw vegetables. Astringent taste creates a dry, choking sensation in the throat.

It improves absorption, binds the stool, and is therefore used to correct diarrhea and dysentery with herbs like kutaja or arrowroot, or fruits like cooked apple pulp and cooked unripe banana. Astringent is anti-inflammatory, decongestant, aids in healing ulcers, performs lekhana (scraping of fat), and stops bleeding by promoting clotting and constricting blood vessels.

In excess, astringent taste causes spasms, griping intestinal sensations, constipation, coagulation, dryness of mouth, difficulty of speech, choking, distention, cardiac spasm, and stagnation of circulation. It may deplete sperm and cause emaciation, convulsions, Bell's palsy, stroke paralysis, and other neuromuscular vata disorders.

Psychologically, astringent taste is supportive and grounding due to the Earth element, bringing organization and collectedness. Excess makes the mind scattered and disorganized, creating insomnia, fear, anxiety, nervousness, rigidity, harshness, emotional stagnation, and depression from holding on to emotions.