Western medicine has nothing much to offer by way of postnatal care after a normal delivery. In fact, in today’s fast-paced world, many mothers are at work just 15 days after delivery. Ayurveda has an elaborate prescription for postnatal mothers. One of the lehyams used in postnatal care is Sowbhagya Sunti, a herbal jam-like preparation.
A lehyam, as described in the ayurvedic pharmacopeia, are linctuses, confections or thickened and sweetened extracts, equivalent to the confections, electuaries and conserves of the British pharmacopeia. Lehyams are also called Avaleha. Lehyams can be stored for almost a year without any change in quality as the presence of jaggery in the lehya acts as a preservative. The heating of jaggery to get the correct consistency of the syrup is an art; only then will the lehyam be soft and easy to consume.
The recipe for Sowbhagya sunti is to be found in the Uttarakhanda section of the Rasaratna Samuchchaya of Vaghbata written in the 7th century. It is a preparation made with jaggery and ghee, both extremely nourishing for the new mother. Many of the ingredients are such that it helps the mother digest food properly so that the baby, breast-fed, does not get colicky.
One of the main ingredients is satapushpa or dill seeds (sadakuppai in Tamil). Dill seeds—the fruits of anethum sowa—help control flatulence and are digestive, carminative and stomachic. The seeds contain essential oils with alpha and beta pinene. The other major ingredient is dried ginger. Sunti (Sanskrit) or chukku (Tamil) is used as a home remedy for indigestion. To dry ginger, the skin is scraped off and it is treated with lime (as a preservative). Dried ginger is pungent and aromatic. It dilates the blood vessels and hence causes warmth. It increases perspiration, and brings down temperature in fever; good to have a masala chai when your nose is blocked and you are feeling feverish. Zingerone, shogaols and gingerols are the various volatile oils present in ginger. Apart from these, dried ginger contains many other phytochemicals which are helpful in digestion. The other ingredients are cinnamon leaves and bark, black pepper and cardamom. Cinnamon leaves contain eugenol. All the above ingredients are aromatic, stimulant, astringent and carminative. Black pepper is useful in the treatment of dyspepsia, flatulence, sore throats and fevers. Coriander seeds, embelia fruits, nigella (black cumin) seeds, long pepper, nagakesar stamens and nutgrass tubers are the other ingredients of this lehyam. According to ayurvedic vaidyars, the dosage is 2 to 10 gms to be taken with goat’s milk. Since the lehyam has ghee, it should be taken on an empty stomach and the next meal should be taken only when the medicine is fully digested.
Another reason why Sowbhagya sunti is prescribed for postnatal mothers is because it is a lactagogue which increases the flow of breast milk. The combination of various herbs, seeds and aromatics along with ghee and jaggery gives the lehyam its lactagogue properties. Modern Western medicine has hardly anything worthwhile to offer to increase breast milk and very often mothers quickly switch to bottle feeding in despair. An interesting aside—jasmine flowers decreases breast milk production, so lactating mothers should avoid wearing jasmine flowers.
The writer is a senior IAS officer serving in the Tamil Nadu government. sheelarani.arogyamantra@gmail.com. Access earlier articles at http://arogyamantra.blogspot.com/