Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Phyllanthus niruri L.
Pronounced Bhumyamalaki = BHOOM-yuh-MAH-luh-kee (Bhui Amla, BHOO-ee AM-lah; Chanca Piedra, CHAHN-kah pee-EH-drah). Phyllanthus niruri = fil-AN-thus nih-ROO-ree.
Cool, dry, and bitter: a draining hepatic and urinary bitter that clears damp-heat from a hot, congested liver and flushes gravel and heat from the urinary tract.
Avoid. Controlled rodent studies of aqueous Phyllanthus niruri extract given during gestation report maternal kidney changes and reduced offspring body weight with later neurobehavioral changes, and there are no adequate human pregnancy data, so use is not recommended. Modern consumer references likewise advise avoiding chanca piedra in pregnancy for lack of reliable safety data. Sources: de Souza et al., maternal-fetal repercussions of P. niruri in rat pregnancy (J Ethnopharmacol 2020, S0378874119309717); P. niruri pregnancy and lactation neurobehavioral rat study (Brain Res 2025, PMID 39694168); WebMD / Drugs.com (Chanca piedra, avoid in pregnancy).
Avoid; insufficient data. Animal studies of exposure through lactation report neurobehavioral changes in the offspring, and there are no human lactation safety data, so a better-documented remedy is preferred. Sources: P. niruri pregnancy and breastfeeding rat study (Brain Res 2025, PMID 39694168); Ferreira et al., aqueous P. niruri during pregnancy and lactation, neurobehavioral effects in rat offspring (2021, S037887412100088X); WebMD / Drugs.com (Chanca piedra, insufficient information, avoid).
Not well established; practitioner-guided use only. Ayurveda has used small doses of the fresh juice or decoction for children's jaundice, but there are no formal modern pediatric safety or dosing data, so reserve internal use for qualified guidance and avoid the concentrated standardized extract in young children. Sources: precautionary practice; WebMD / Drugs.com (no pediatric data); Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India (traditional pediatric jaundice use).
It lowers blood sugar, so use cautiously in diabetes and hypoglycemia and watch for additive effects with glucose-lowering medication. It is mildly hypotensive and diuretic, so it can add to blood-pressure-lowering and diuretic drugs. Its lignans (phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin) are potent mechanism-based inhibitors of liver CYP3A4 (and also inhibit CYP1A2, 2D6, and 2E1), so it can raise blood levels of drugs cleared by these enzymes; this matters most for narrow-margin drugs such as the immunosuppressants tacrolimus and cyclosporine. Being cold, light, and drying, it aggravates Vata and cold, deficient, dry constitutions. A practical caution: commercial Bhumyamalaki is frequently the botanically distinct species Phyllanthus amarus or Phyllanthus fraternus rather than true P. niruri, so insist on correctly identified material. Given the blood-sugar and possible antiplatelet effects, stop about 2 weeks before surgery.
Pregnancy (avoid; animal data show maternal and offspring effects and human safety data are lacking) and lactation (avoid; insufficient data). Caution in diabetes and hypoglycemia, in low blood pressure, and alongside blood-sugar-, blood-pressure-, and CYP3A4-metabolized narrow-margin drugs, especially immunosuppressants. Relative constitutional caution in cold, dry, weak-digestion (Vata) states. Not a substitute for medical care in viral hepatitis or obstructing urinary stones.
Not on the United Plant Savers At-Risk or To-Watch lists (which track North American natives). Phyllanthus niruri is an abundant, fast-reproducing pantropical annual weed of gardens, fields, and waste ground, gathered as the whole plant without conservation concern, so wild harvest is sustainable. The chief integrity issue here is botanical, not ecological: because commercial Bhumyamalaki is frequently the look-alike species P. amarus or P. fraternus, prefer correctly identified, verified material from a reputable supplier over sustainability alone.
Not named in the canonical biblical texts. Bhumyamalaki is a pantropical plant whose medicinal use is anchored in Ayurveda, where it is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India as a foremost liver and urinary herb, and, as chanca piedra or quebra-pedra (stonebreaker), in the folk medicine of the Amazon, the West Indies, and tropical South America for stones and jaundice. It is a plant of the Indian and tropical New World materia medica rather than the ancient Mediterranean or biblical world.
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