Shatavari, the queen of a hundred roots

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The plants that walk with the cycles, to live inside them fully.

Held to be a rasayana and the Mistress of Yin by the ancient Ayurvedic traditions of India, Shatavari is a Queen of the plant kingdom. She is a wild asparagus, Asparagus racemosus, and her whole name lies in what she hides underground.

She of a hundred roots, she of a hundred husbands

Shatavari, in Sanskrit: shata, a hundred. The most common reading makes her "she of a hundred roots", and botany bears it out. Dig up a mature plant and below the crown you find a cluster of white, fleshy tuberous roots that can number around a hundred and weigh several kilos after three or four years.

The vaidyas, the Ayurvedic physicians, give a second reading: vari, husband. Shatavari becomes "she who has a hundred husbands". The tradition holds both readings together: the mother with a hundred fingers plunged into the earth, and the woman with a hundred husbands.

The Bhavaprakasha, Bhavamishra's great lexicon of plants from the sixteenth century, gives her other names, among them Narayani, the feminine form of Narayana, that is, Vishnu. The tantric tradition keeps this bond: there, Shatavari is a plant of devotion.

The queen of Ayurveda

The Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita, the two founding treatises of Ayurveda, name her, and Vagbhata's Ashtanga Hridaya (around the seventh century) takes her up again. Ayurveda places her among the rasayana, a word that can be read as "the path of essence": plants taken every day, for a long time. Herbalists today call her the Queen, facing ashwagandha, whom they call the King: the root that smells of horse on one side, the hundred white roots on the other.

Shatavari revitalises and grounds the body, softens and deepens the emotions, calms and opens the mind, and brings the spirit into alignment. She is the revered plant of women in Ayurveda, through every season of their lives.

The Shatavari Kalpa, the milk of the forty days

The Shatavari Kalpa is a classic Ayurvedic preparation: the root powder, warm milk, ghee, cardamom, sometimes a touch of saffron and a little raw cane sugar or honey. In many Indian families, mothers and mothers-in-law make it for new mothers, every day for the forty days after the birth. The recipe passes from woman to woman this way, along with the gesture of the cup held out.

The Chinese cousin, the flying herb

Chinese medicine knows shatavari as zhang ci tian men dong, "the long-thorned tian men dong". Her cousin, tian men dong (Asparagus cochinchinensis), carries among the Taoists the nickname "flying herb": whoever takes it for a long time would become so light they could fly, reports Ron Teeguarden, a specialist in Chinese herbs, and some add: even in their dreams. The legend belongs to the cousin; shatavari has inherited the reputation in the West.

The plant

Asparagus racemosus is a thorny climber of the Asparagaceae, the family of garden asparagus. It climbs along forest edges and rocky ground in India, Sri Lanka, the Himalayas and parts of Africa. Its leaves are fine green needles, its small white flowers fragrant, its berries red when ripe. The species is dioecious: there are male plants and female plants.

Heavy demand has emptied wild populations in several parts of its range. Careful harvesters take only a few roots from each plant, leaving the crown in the ground so it grows back. We work with responsibly cultivated sources.

Shatavari at the House

Our Shatavari is a root powder from India, from a certified organic supply chain, in 50 g, 100 g and 200 g. Its flavour is deliciously earthy, slightly nutty, and it slips easily into drinks and dishes.

• The latte: a teaspoon of powder (3 to 5 g) in 250 ml of warm plant milk, almond or oat, or water at around 80 °C; a pinch of cardamom, a little honey, a dab of ghee if you like. Stir well, or use a frother.
• The decoction: a teaspoon in a litre of water, simmered gently for five minutes, with plant milk added just before serving. Drink it unstrained, letting the powder settle at the bottom of the cup.
• In a smoothie, a juice, a yoghurt: one teaspoon.

One to two cups a day, ideally in the morning, or as an evening latte with cardamom. Shatavari is drunk as a regular habit, in cycles of about 21 days, with breaks. She happily shares the morning decoction with ashwagandha; a few rose petals soften the cup.

Precautions

• Known asparagus allergy: avoid (same botanical family).
• Oestrogen-sensitive conditions (breast cancer, uterine fibroids, endometriosis), hormone treatment: medical advice before use, as shatavari has a mild phytoestrogenic activity.
• Pregnancy: only under the supervision of a qualified practitioner. Breastfeeding: ask a health professional.
• Kidney failure: medical advice (mild diuretic effect).
• Thyroid medication: talk to your doctor.

When in doubt, your doctor before the plant.

Sources

• Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita.
• Vagbhata, Ashtanga Hridaya (around the seventh century).
• Bhavamishra, Bhavaprakasha Nighantu (sixteenth century).
• Ron Teeguarden, Chinese Tonic Herbs, Japan Publications, 1984.
• David Winston and Steven Maimes, Adaptogens, 2007.
• INFUSE product sheet: origin, certification, formats, preparation and precautions.

Shatavari★★★★★5.0(20)alk. 7,00 €Katso →