Gulikas - Ayurvedic Tablets

Gulika, vati, and the kashayam tablet

Gulika and vati are the classical words for a pill, and the preparations that carry those names were designed as pills from the start — the herbs ground, bound, and rolled. Yogaraja Guggulu and Kaishora Guggulu are of that kind. They are not modern conveniences; they are as old as the decoctions.

The kashayam tablet is the newer idea, and a more contested one. It takes a preparation the texts describe as a liquid and presses it into a tablet so that someone can keep taking it. Purists note that a decoction and its tablet are not identical. Anyone who has tried to finish a two-month course of a bitter liquid understands why the tablet exists. Twenty-one of the thirty-five here are of this type.

Three kinds of tablet on one shelf

1. Classical gulikas — Pills in the original sense — the guggulu preparations and their relatives, made as tablets because the texts say so.
2. Kashayam tablets — A decoction in tablet form. Chosen for adherence rather than tradition, which is a fair reason and worth naming.
3. Anupana still applies — Most of these are taken with warm water. The tablet changed the format, not the instruction on the pack.

See also Tablets & Capsules and Kashayams.

Always read the label and directions on the pack you receive, and speak with your physician before starting anything new — particularly if you are pregnant, nursing, managing a health condition or taking prescription medicine.