Shatavari is Asparagus racemosus, a woody climbing plant of the asparagus family that grows at low altitudes across India, and whose dried tuberous roots are used as an Ayurvedic drug. Its characteristic compounds are steroidal saponins called shatavarins, and the human evidence for it amounts to two small lactation trials that reached opposite conclusions. If you are thinking of taking it for any reason, and especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, follow your doctor's advice first.
At a glance
- A 2013 review in the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease describes A. racemosus as a woody climber 1 to 2 m high with needle-like leaves, botanically described in 1799.
- A 2018 study in Scientific Reports identified 33 steroidal saponins and 16 triterpene saponins in the plant, with the steroidal saponins dominant in the root.
- Two lactation trials disagree: 64 mothers over 4 weeks in Indian Pediatrics (1996) showed no difference in prolactin against placebo; 60 mothers over 30 days in the Iranian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research (2011) showed a larger rise.
- A 2016 review in the Ochsner Journal found the clinical trial results on herbal galactagogues "mixed" and said more evidence is needed on shatavari.
- The same 2013 review says the plant "is now considered endangered in its natural habitat" because of destructive harvesting, habitat destruction and deforestation.
What plant is shatavari?
Shatavari is the Ayurvedic name for Asparagus racemosus Willd., a wild relative of garden asparagus. The 2013 review by Alok and colleagues describes it as "a woody climber growing to 1-2 m in height" whose "leaves are like pine needles, small and uniform and flowers are white and have small spikes". The part used is the root: the review says "the dried roots of the plant are used as drug", and elsewhere refers to its tuberous roots.
Which family it belongs to depends on how old your source is. The Alok review notes that the genus "has recently moved from the sub family Asparagae in the family Liliaceae to a newly created family Asparagaceae", yet its own abstract still says Liliaceae; the 2018 Scientific Reports study by Srivastava and colleagues gives Asparagaceae. The same shift affected safed musli, another tuberous-rooted member of the group, covered in our article on what safed musli is.
Where does shatavari grow?
At low altitude, in shade, across most of India and well beyond it. The Alok review says the plant is "found at low altitudes throughout India" and that its habitat "is common at low altitudes in shade and in tropical climates throughout Asia, Australia and Africa". The Srivastava study adds that it "grows in tropical and temperate deciduous forests" across India, Africa, Australia, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
What does the name shatavari mean?
The reviews give two readings, both turning on shata, a hundred. The Alok review opens with "who possesses a hundred husbands or acceptable to many", and later gives "curer of a hundred diseases". Neither is a finding: the Alok review itself concludes that "no scintific proof justify aborementioned uses of root extract of A. racemosus is available so far".
Why is shatavari described as endangered, and how is it harvested?
Because the root is the part sold, and taking the root takes the plant. The Alok review says that "the demand for A. racemosus is constantly on the rise" and that "due to destructive harvesting, combined with habitat destruction, and deforestation, the plant is now considered endangered in its natural habitat". The same wording appears in a 2007 review by Bopana and Saxena in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, whose abstract adds that the supply "is rather erratic and inadequate" and argues for cultivation as the remedy. The Srivastava study agrees: "overharvesting and deforestation are accountable for the consumption of large amounts of natural resources" of the plant.
We could not open an official red-list entry for the species, so treat "endangered" as the reviews' description rather than a formal listing. Once dug, the roots are "cleaned, dried in shade and fine-powdered", as the 2011 Kolkata trial describes.
What does shatavari root contain?
A group of steroidal saponins named shatavarins, concentrated in the root. The Alok review says "the major active constituents of A. racemosus are steroidal saponins (Shatavarins I-IV) that are present in the roots", and that shatavarin I is "the major glycoside with 3-glucose and rhamnose moieties attached to sarsapogenin".
The 2018 Srivastava study, which profiled root, leaf and fruit, found the chemistry wider than that: 33 steroidal saponins, "much higher than in earlier reports", and "16 triterpene saponins for the first time". Crucially, "steroidal saponins are dominant in root as compared to other tissues, whereas triterpene saponins are dominated in fruit and leaf tissues". It agreed with earlier reports in finding shatavarin IV and V the major saponins. The study gives relative abundances, not percentages, so no honest page can tell you what per cent of a root powder is shatavarin.
| Fact | What the sources say | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Botanical name | Asparagus racemosus Willd., described in 1799 | Alok 2013; Gupta & Shaw 2011 |
| Family | Asparagaceae; Liliaceae in older literature | Alok 2013; Srivastava 2018 |
| Habit | Woody climber, 1 to 2 m, needle-like leaves, white flowers with small spikes | Alok 2013 |
| Part used | Dried tuberous roots | Alok 2013 |
| Range | Low altitudes throughout India; tropical Asia, Australia, Africa; Nepal, Sri Lanka | Alok 2013; Srivastava 2018 |
| Main constituents | Steroidal saponins (shatavarins); 33 steroidal and 16 triterpene saponins detected; IV and V major | Alok 2013; Srivastava 2018 |
| Classical references | Charaka Samhita and Ashtanga Hridayam list it among their formulas | Alok 2013 |
| Status | "Considered endangered in its natural habitat" (reviews' wording) | Alok 2013, after Bopana & Saxena 2007 |
What do the human trials on shatavari show?
Two small lactation trials that disagree, and two reviews that trust neither enough to recommend anything.
- Sharma and colleagues (1996), Indian Pediatrics: a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in New Delhi. 64 mothers with lactational inadequacy were randomised 32 to each group for 4 weeks; 11 did not complete. The test product was a mixture with shatavari root extract as the active principle, 15 g per 100 g alongside six other ingredients. Prolactin fell comparably in both groups; infant weight gain and supplementary feeds were comparable too, and no significant side effects were reported. The authors concluded that A. racemosus "does not have any lactogogic effect".
- Gupta and Shaw (2011), Iranian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research: a randomised double-blind trial in Kolkata. 70 mothers were selected and 60 followed up over 30 days, taking capsules of shatavari root powder or a rice-powder placebo. The abstract reports "more than three-fold increase in the prolactin hormone level" compared with control; the results table gives mean rises of 32.87 per cent against 9.56 per cent, and mothers' and babies' weights rose more in the treated group. One oddity: the table's footnote says n = 20 per group, which does not match the 60 mothers in the abstract.
- Bazzano and colleagues (2016), Ochsner Journal: a 2015 search for placebo-controlled trials of pharmaceutical and herbal galactagogues. It found the two shatavari trials above and notes that the 1996 trial gave the root mixed with other herbs, which makes the herb's own effect impossible to isolate, that both treatment groups were small, and that only Gupta and Shaw reported an effect. Its abstract says "results of the clinical trials on herbal galactagogues were mixed" and that the whole field shows "a dearth of high-quality clinical trials and mixed results". An earlier systematic review, by Mortel and Mehta in the Journal of Human Lactation in 2013, found six herbal galactogogue trials in all, listed small samples, insufficient randomisation, poorly defined eligibility and poly-herbal mixtures among their limitations, and concluded that "no recommendation is made for the use of herbs as galactogogues".
Prolactin is also a blood measure, not a measure of milk a baby received. If you are breastfeeding and worried about supply, see a doctor or lactation consultant.
Beyond lactation, the published work is preclinical: a 2012 study in the Indian Journal of Pharmacology, for instance, tested shatavarin IV on three human cancer cell lines and in mice. Cell-culture and mouse studies say nothing about what shatavari does in a person.
What do the classical texts say, and where does shatavari appear today?
The texts treat it as a rasayana, one of the rejuvenating class of drugs, and that is a description of tradition. The Alok review says the Charaka Samhita and the Ashtanga Hridayam list A. racemosus among their formulas, and the 2007 review calls it a rasayana herb in Ayurveda. Ashwagandha holds the same status in the texts, as our comparison of shilajit and ashwagandha explains.
Because of that status, the root is a common ingredient in multi-herb tonics. Himdhara's Shilajit Gold Resin is one: Himalayan shilajit purified with triphala and blended with Ashwagandha, Safed Musli, Shatavari, Gokhru and gold ash. The manufacturer's certificate for batch 2658, on the lab reports page, records that each herb complied with the label. That confirms the root is in the jar; it says nothing about what the blend does, and the trials above are not evidence about it. The blend itself is described on the Shilajit Gold Resin page.
The short version
Shatavari is Asparagus racemosus, a woody climber 1 to 2 m tall of the asparagus family, found at low altitudes throughout India. The dried tuberous roots are the part used; their characteristic compounds are steroidal saponins called shatavarins. Reviews describe the wild plant as considered endangered because roots are dug faster than they regrow. The human evidence is two small lactation trials of 64 and 60 mothers that reached opposite conclusions, which the reviews call mixed and too thin for a recommendation. Follow your doctor's advice before taking it, especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- Alok S, Jain SK, Verma A, Kumar M, Mahor A, Sabharwal M (2013). Plant profile, phytochemistry and pharmacology of Asparagus racemosus (Shatavari): A review. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease.
- Srivastava PL, Shukla A, Kalunke RM (2018). Comprehensive metabolic and transcriptomic profiling of various tissues provide insights for saponin biosynthesis in the medicinally important Asparagus racemosus. Scientific Reports.
- Sharma S, Ramji S, Kumari S, Bapna JS (1996). Randomized Controlled Trial of Asparagus racemosus (Shatavari) as a Lactogogue in Lactational Inadequacy. Indian Pediatrics.
- Gupta M, Shaw B (2011). A Double-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial for Evaluation of Galactogogue Activity of Asparagus racemosus Willd.. Iranian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research.
- Bazzano AN, Hofer R, Thibeau S, Gillispie V, Jacobs M, Theall KP (2016). A Review of Herbal and Pharmaceutical Galactagogues for Breast-Feeding. Ochsner Journal.