Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Patha is the dried root of a climbing vine, Cissampelos pareira. In Ayurveda it is used on its own as a single drug, mainly for loose stools, griping belly pain, fever and urinary complaints.
It is bitter and drying. Classical texts group it with the herbs used to settle the gut and to help the body clear what it calls ama, meaning poorly digested waste.
The honest evidence position: Patha has a long and well documented place in Ayurvedic practice, but we could not find published human trials testing it for any condition. Long traditional use is not the same as proof that something works, and that applies to everything on this page.
Nobody has shown in people how Patha works. What follows is what laboratory and animal work suggests, and it may not carry over to a human taking a tea or a powder.
The root contains a group of alkaloids (strong plant chemicals) that appear to relax smooth muscle, the muscle in the gut wall and blood vessel walls. That is the usual explanation offered for its traditional use in cramping diarrhoea.
Some of these same alkaloids belong to the chemical family that includes curare, the South American arrow poison that blocks the signal from nerve to muscle. In test-tube work Patha alkaloids show a weak version of that effect. This has not been shown to happen at normal food-herb doses, but it is the reason anyone facing surgery should stop the herb first.
Animal studies also report lower blood sugar, lower blood pressure and reduced inflammation. These are animal findings only.
Patha is sold and used in a few simple forms.
Dried root powder, called patha churna, is the most common. A water decoction (kwatha), made by boiling the chopped root, is the classical form used for gut complaints.
You will also see tablets and capsules of the plain powder, and liquid extracts. Patha is also an ingredient in multi-herb Ayurvedic formulas, but this page covers Patha used on its own as a single drug.
One practical warning about buying it: the name Patha is used loosely in Indian herb markets. Cyclea peltata, Stephania species and other look-alike roots are sold under the same name, and in the wider trade in related roots there have been cases where Aristolochia species, which damage the kidneys, were supplied by mistake. Buy only from a seller who names the botanical species on the label.
Patha appears in the oldest Ayurvedic texts, including the Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita, where it is listed among herbs for diarrhoea, fever and worms.
It stayed in continuous use through the classical Ayurvedic tradition and is also used in Siddha and Unani practice in South Asia.
The same plant grows across the tropics and is used in South America under the name abuta, mainly for menstrual and urinary complaints. That is folk use rather than a documented classical system.
See a doctor straight away if you notice unusual muscle weakness, drooping eyelids, double vision, trouble swallowing or trouble breathing after taking Patha. Stop the herb first.
Get medical help the same day for blood in your stool, black tarry stool, a fever above 39C, signs of dehydration such as very little urine or dizziness on standing, or diarrhoea in a baby, an older person or someone with a weakened immune system.
Make an appointment if your diarrhoea has not settled within a week, if it keeps coming back, or if you have burning when you pass urine, which usually means an infection that needs proper treatment.
Tell your doctor, dentist and anaesthetist that you take Patha before any procedure.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
Reviewed by the HealisticMD editorial team How we grade evidence →
The published evidence for Patha is weak or absent. That usually means no controlled trial has tested it, not that a trial found it ineffective — the two are different, and we grade only what has been published.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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