Kshavaka

Names and identification

Language	Name
Sanskrit	Kshavaka; also Chhikka, Chhikkani, Kshavakrita
Hindi	Nakchhikni
Marathi	Naakashikani
Kannada	Chikani
English	Spreading sneezeweed, sneezewort
Latin/Botanical	Centipeda minima (L.) A.Braun & Asch.
Family	Asteraceae

Kshavaka is a small, prostrate annual of the daisy family. The Sanskrit name is built on kshava, a sneeze, and the crushed plant provokes sneezing, which is why it sits among the nasal-clearing drugs. The vernacular names above are those listed by Flowers of India for Centipeda minima.

The same name has also been applied to the spiny amaranth, Amaranthus spinosus. That plant is the classical Tanduliya, a leafy vegetable with a quite different use, and it has its own page at Tanduliyaka. This page describes only the sneezeweed.

Where does the identification come from?

• Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 4, verse 27 names ten Shirovirechanopaga drugs, the adjuvants for nasal clearing: Jyotishmati, Kshavaka, Maricha, Pippali, Vidanga, Shigru, Sarshapa, Apamarga seed, Shveta and Mahashveta. The Charak Samhita Online edition of the chapter and its herb index identify Kshavaka as Centipeda minima. The Easy Ayurveda rendering of the same chapter gives Centipeda minima A. Br. et Aschers.
• Sanskrit lexicons: the Wisdom Library Ayurveda glossary glosses Kshavaka as “sneeze-wort”, Centipeda orbicularis, an older name for the same plant. Monier-Williams gives chikkani, “causing sneezing”, as Artemisia sternutatoria Roxb., which the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy records as a synonym of Centipeda minima. Monier-Williams also records other senses of kshavaka (Achyranthes aspera, black mustard, a pot-herb), so the word is only unambiguous in the nasal-clearing context.
• Botanical name: the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy accepts Centipeda minima (L.) A.Br. & Asch., family Asteraceae.
• We could not find a monograph for Kshavaka or Centipeda minima in the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, Part I, Volumes I to VII.

How is it used traditionally?

• In Charaka it is one of the ten drugs that support Shirovirechana, the nasal route of cleansing (Sutrasthana 4.27). The group pairs it with Jyotishmati, Maricha (Black pepper), Pippali, Vidanga, Shigru (Moringa), Sarshapa, Apamarga seed and the two Shveta varieties of Aparajita. Charaka gives no dose for the single drug, so none is given here.
• In Chinese medicine the dried whole plant is listed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and has been used for rhinitis, sinusitis, cough and asthma-type complaints, as summarised by Tan and others 2022 and Liu and others 2023 (below).

What do recent studies show?

• Tan J, Qiao Z, Meng M and others 2022. Centipeda minima: An update on its phytochemistry, pharmacology and safety. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. PMID 35091011 · doi:10.1016/j.jep.2022.115027
  Review of 191 compounds isolated from the plant (terpenes, flavonoids, sterols, phenols, organic acids, volatile oils). Reports in vitro and animal studies of anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activity, and notes that clinical use in China is mainly for rhinitis and sinusitis, cough and asthma.
• Liu J, Zheng W, He Y and others 2023. A Review of the Research Applications of Centipeda minima. Molecules. PMID 38202691 · doi:10.3390/molecules29010108
  Covers composition, pharmacology, toxicity and safety; the safety section is summarised below.
• Shang Z, Wang Y, Zhu T and others 2025. Centipeda minima: A Review of Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, and Predictive Analysis on Quality Markers. Molecules. PMID 41157091 · doi:10.3390/molecules30204072
  Proposes the sesquiterpene lactones brevilin A, arnicolide C, arnicolide D and helenalin as candidate quality markers for the drug.

Only studies that could be traced to a published paper are listed here. An absence here means we could not identify the source, not that no work exists.

Recent safety updates

• The 2023 review (Liu and others) reports that internal use can cause burning in the throat, oesophagus and stomach with nausea and vomiting, and that in one allergic rhinitis series 19 of 97 patients had transient adverse reactions and 9 had sustained reactions that led them to stop. The same review says the safety evidence is based largely on animal work and calls for formal toxicity studies and clinical trials.
• Material sold as Kshavaka may be the spiny amaranth rather than the sneezeweed. Ask the supplier which plant is meant.