DIURETIC HERBS

Diuretic herbs increase urination. They promote the functional activity

of the kidneys and urinary bladder. Acting on the water element in all
the tissue-elements {dhatus) of the body diuretic herbs reduce and
remove toxins.
Their action is largely one of detoxification and purgation dirough the
urine. They are purgatives for the water element in the body and as such
they reduce the earth element in the body. Hence, like all purgatives,
they must be used with caution.
Diuretics decrease water and reduce Kapha, whose main constituent is
water. Generally they are bitter, astringent or pungent in taste. Similarly,
all diuretics tend to increase the dryness of Vata. This action is
aggravated by the tastes that relieve Kapha and dampness.
Diuretics also reduce Pitta. Many or even most of them are stronger in
reducing Pitta than Kapha. This is not just because Pitta is also
somewhat oily in nature. It is because urination is also a way of relieving
heat from the body; of removing acid and toxins from the blood; a way
of cooling and purifying the blood. This relieves Pitta.
Heating and drying herbs, pungent taste, bring water up and out of the
body through the process of sweatingdiaphoretic action. They also
work by relieving mucus through the mouth in expectoration. Just as
water evaporates upwards by the action of fire, heating and drying herbs
purify our system.
Cooling and drying herbs, bitter and astringent tasteson the other hand
bring water downwards through the urine. Cold herbs cause a
descending or contracting action, the way hot herbs create a rising and
dispersing action.
Diuretic action is generally cooling and dryingthe opposite of the
qualities of Pitta, heat and moisture. For this reason, diuretics dispel
damp heat, as in diarrhea and dysentery, and cool down not only the
kidneys and bladder, but also the liver and gall bladder. In increasing
urination, they help dispel kidney and bladder stones, and also stones of
the gall bladder. Such stone-dispelling herbs are called lithotriptic.
In their more specific anti-Kapha action, diuretic herbs dispel edema and
water accumulation in thie tissues, particularly in the lower half of the
body. (Facially-accumulated water and water in the head and chest are
often better reduced by diaphoretic and expectorant herbs.) They help
decrease fat and reduce weight, particularly when fat is mainly
composed of water.
They stimulate bladder and kidney function, but are seldom actually
tonic or nutritive to the kidneys. Their drying action may cause
constipation or dryness of the skin. Scanty urination without water
accumulation requires a moistening, not a drying therapy, and in that
condition, diuretic herbs are usually contraindicated. Vata constitution
needs to increase urine by increasing water in the tissuesnot a diuretic
but a tonic or nutritive therapy. Diuretics are probably the strongest
herbs to aggravate Vata, and are contraindicated in conditions of
convalescent debility and dehydration.
Diuretics can be divided into cooling and heating kinds, the cooling
types are in the majority. Cooling diuretics are often also cooling
diaphoretics, alteratives or antipyretic herbs, useful in fevers and
infectious diseases, particularly those involving the urino-genital tract
(as herpes) or the liver and gall bladder.
Warming diuretics, like juniper berries, are often warming diaphoretics,
stimulants and expectorants and may have antirheumatic action. They
are contraindicated in Pitta conditions of kidney or gall bladder
inflammation unless they are balanced out by a majority of cooling
herbs.
A few diuretics are cooling and moistening, apart from their drying
action in diuresis, and have a soothing effect upon the mucous
membranes of the urinary system. Examples are marshmallow, barley or
gole-shura. Often one such herb is added to a diuretic formula to soothe
and protect the kidneys from the drying and scraping action of diuretic
herbs that can cause irritation and discomfort.
Typical cooling diuretics: asparagus, barley, buchu, burdock, cleavers,
coriander, cornsilk, dandelion, fennel, gokshura, gravel root, horsetail,
lemon grass, marshmallow, plantain, punarnava, spearmint, uva ursi.
Typical warming diuretics: ajwan, cinnamon, cubebs, garlic, juniper
berries, Mormon tea, mustard, parsley, wild carrot.