The Yin-Yang of Saffron
Medicine is full of paradoxes. One such paradox is the contrasting classification of saffron in Ayurveda and Tibetan Medicine.
In Ayurveda, saffron is classified as heating in nature and having the action of reducing the three doshas. In Tibetan Medicine, saffron is considered one of the six supreme medicines. It is classified as cooling in nature and able to treat all diseases of the Liver, heat diseases in general, and hemostatic.
Ayurveda and Tibetan Medicine are geographic and philosophical neighbors. What accounts for the difference in their classification of saffron? One theory is that they were referring to different substances or types of saffron which exhibited these different qualities. However, this is not entirely plausible, as both systems refer to the saffron grown in Kashmir to be superior in quality.
Vaidya Bhagwan Dash was a scholar of Ayurvedic and Tibetan Medicine and wrote an interesting essay exploring saffron in both systems. In this essay, he furnishes the following quote from a Tibetan medical text:
Of the 2,000 medicinal preparations prescribed by Brahmā, saffron and pomegranate are the most important—the former cures all diseases caused by heat and the latter cures all diseases caused by cold.[1]
Dash states that the Tibetan authors attribute this statement to the Ayurvedic source-text, Caraka Samhita. However, upon searching for this verse, Dash was unable to locate it within the extant text. This may very well be an example of lost Ayurvedic knowledge that has been preserved in Tibetan medical literature, of which I am certain many more examples exist. However, this quote presents another twist: it classifies pomegranate as heating in nature, whereas Ayurveda typically considers pomegranate to be cooling in nature. I distinctly remember Vaidya Mishra discussing the cooling benefits of pomegranate, its uses to cool Summer heat, and to reduce all types of pitta conditions. Tibetan Medicine considers pomegranate to be one of the six supreme ingredients. It supports digestive heat in the Stomach and is a foundation ingredient in the core digestive formulas of Tibetan herbal formulas.
It seems that the pairing of saffron / pomegranate and heat / cold are precisely inverse in Ayurveda and Tibetan Medicine. How to account for this apparent contradiction? Perhaps we will find clarity in looking at the third major medical system of the Asian continent: Chinese medicine. The Chinese medical view of saffron is nearly identical with the Tibetan tantras. Chinese medicine classifies saffron as sweet in taste, beneficial for Liver heat and Blood stagnation, with an affinity for Liver and Heart organ networks. However, Chinese medicine offers a different view of its energetic nature, classifying saffron as neutral instead of heating or cooling. Given Tibetan Medicine’s assimilation of medical systems from the old world (including Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, and Greco-Arab medicine), it it not surprising that even while its pharmacological framework is most resonant with Ayurveda, it also readily departs from Ayurvedic conclusions and describes organ-specific therapeutics that are uncharacteristic of Ayurvedic pharmacodynamics. This unique ability to stand between and beyond its neighboring medical traditions affords Tibetan Medicine a valuable integrative perspective.
There is really no satisfactory way to explain such differences among neighboring medical traditions. What we have to remember is that there is always more than one way of looking at things. The nature, qualities, and actions of plant medicines are complex and very far from one-dimensional. Heat and cold are opposites on an energetic spectrum. Yang is the foundation of yin and yin is the foundation of yang. Thus, neither heat nor cold can exist without each other. Ayurveda and Tibetan Medicine together give us a vision of the yin and yang of saffron, and its relative role within the therapeutics of each system. How do we know in which way to use saffron? Practitioners of Ayurveda should use it according to their system and Tibetan Medicine practitioners should use it according to their system. In this way, the clinical use of saffron will remain internally consistent and non-problematic. This being said, I would invite Ayurvedic practitioners to consider the Tibetan perspective and especially the use of saffron-based herbal formulas and see what value it might add to their practice.
While we have focused on the differences between these systems’ understanding of saffron, what we ultimately find is quite a bit of similarity. Ayurveda asserts that saffron is tridoshic in nature, meaning it balances all three doshas and does not aggravate any of them. Chinese medicine says saffron is neutral—neither hot nor cold, and therefore not potentially imbalancing to the body’s energetic equilibrium. Tibetan Medicine agrees with all of the above, giving saffron the status of one of the six supreme medicines, while also freely asserting its unique efficacy in the treatment of heat diseases (especially Liver and Blood pathologies). The ultimate import here is that all systems assert that saffron is a significant medicine that can be used by almost anyone to positive effect.
References
[1]Dash, V. (1976). Saffron in Ayurveda and Tibetan Medicine. The Tibet Journal, 1(2), 59-66. Retrieved July 11, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43299808