Kushmanda Rasayanaya (කූෂ්මාණ්ඩ රසායනය) is a sweet, jam-like Ayurvedic preparation made from ash gourd, cooked down with ghee, sugar and warming spices and finished with honey. In Sri Lanka it is one of the best-known household tonics, sold in jars and pouches by several Ayurvedic manufacturers and taken by the spoonful, usually with milk, by people who want to regain strength and weight. This page explains the name, what goes into it, how it is made, what it is traditionally used for, what the research does and does not show, and how to take it sensibly.
What the Name Means
Kushmanda is the Sanskrit name for the ash gourd, Benincasa hispida, called puhul or alu puhul in Sinhala, neetru poosani in Tamil and petha in Hindi. In English it is also known as wax gourd, white gourd, winter melon and ash pumpkin.
Rasayanaya is the Sri Lankan form of the Sanskrit rasayana. In early Ayurveda the word named a branch of medicine concerned with rejuvenation and long life, and today Sri Lankan makers use it for a whole dosage form: a thick, sweet, spoonable paste made by cooking herbs into a syrup of sugar with ghee and honey. Link Natural, for example, groups rasayana with modakaya and awaleha as its "herbal soothing paste" preparations, mainly used for rejuvenation. The same form is called avaleha or lehya in India, where the equivalent product is sold as Kushmanda Avaleha, Kushmanda Lehyam or Kushmandaka Rasayana. Other familiar members of the family are Chyavanprash (Chyawanaprasha) and the ashwagandha-based rasayanas.
The Ash Gourd
The ash gourd is a vigorous climbing vine of the cucumber and pumpkin family (Cucurbitaceae), native to South and Southeast Asia and grown across Sri Lanka. Young fruits are green and covered in fine bristly hairs. As they ripen they develop a chalky white, waxy bloom, which looks like a dusting of ash and gives the plant its English name. That wax also protects the fruit: a whole mature gourd, commonly 5 to 10 kg, can keep for up to a year without refrigeration.
The flesh is white, mild and almost entirely water, about 94 to 97 g in every 100 g, with only a few grams of carbohydrate and very little fat, so the raw fruit has roughly 13 kilocalories per 100 g. In Sri Lankan kitchens it goes into curries with coconut milk, and in North India it is candied into the famous petha sweets. The calories in Kushmanda Rasayanaya therefore come almost entirely from the sugar, ghee and honey it is cooked with, not from the gourd.
Ayurvedic texts count the gourd among their most valued foods. The Bhavaprakasha Nighantu calls it bruhaniya, nourishing and body-building; the physician Bhava Mishra described it as a medhya rasayana, a rejuvenative that also supports the mind; and the Rajanighantu credits it with relieving excessive thirst and urinary complaints and with calming aggravated pitta, the fiery principle.
What Is in It
Recipes differ slightly between makers, but they follow the same pattern: grated or pulped ash gourd, sugar, ghee and bee honey, with a small group of aromatic spices. The ingredient list printed for Sethsuwa Kushmanda Rasayanaya is typical:
- Ash gourd (Benincasa hispida), the base of the preparation.
- Sugar and bee honey, which sweeten, thicken and preserve it.
- Ghee, in which the gourd is cooked.
- Ginger (Zingiber officinale) and long pepper (Piper longum), with black pepper (Piper nigrum): the pungent spices that, in Ayurvedic thinking, keep a rich, sweet preparation digestible.
- Cumin (Cuminum cyminum) and coriander (Coriandrum sativum).
- Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) and Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum).
- An aromatic Pogostemon leaf, as printed on the pack.
The Indian Kushmandaka Rasayana follows almost the same formula: sugar, ash gourd, ghee and honey with long pepper, dry ginger, cumin, cinnamon bark, cardamom and Indian bay leaf (patra). Beam lists its version simply as ash gourd, ghee "and etc.", which is common on Sri Lankan labels; if you need a full ingredient list, for an allergy or a diet, check the pack or ask the maker.
How It Is Made
The method follows the classic avaleha technique, though each maker has its own recipe. Typically the ash gourd is peeled, seeded and grated or pulped, and its watery juice is pressed out or cooked away. The pulp is then fried slowly in ghee until it loses its raw smell and turns golden, and sugar is added and cooked with it into a thick syrup. The finely powdered spices are stirred in towards the end, and the honey is added only after the mass has cooled a little, because Ayurveda holds that honey should not be heated. The result is a thick paste that holds its shape on a spoon, keeps well because of its high sugar content, and tastes sweet and gently spicy.
Traditional Uses
Kushmanda Rasayanaya is above all a restorative. The uses printed by Sri Lankan makers, and those found in the Ayurvedic literature, fall into a few groups:
- Weakness, weight loss and convalescence. Sethsuwa describes it as especially beneficial for emaciated people and for weakness and loss of appetite, and as a rejuvenating and aphrodisiac tonic. Beam calls it a traditional recipe that maintains the body's energy and youthfulness.
- Heat, thirst and burning sensations. Sethsuwa lists burning sensations, thirst, vertigo and heat-related ailments; Gampaha Wickramarachchi lists fever and excessive thirst. This reflects the gourd's reputation as a cooling food.
- Cough and the lungs. Gampaha Wickramarachchi lists lung ailments, and Indian writing presents Kushmanda Avaleha mainly as a remedy for cough, breathlessness and other respiratory complaints.
- Urinary complaints. Gampaha Wickramarachchi lists urinary tract disorders, in line with the classical description of the gourd.
- Women's health. Beam describes it as a remedy for leucorrhoea (white vaginal discharge).
Indian texts also connect Kushmanda preparations with the mind: the lehyam is mentioned in the Bhaishajya Ratnavali and Basavarajeeyam in the context of epilepsy and mental disorders, and a related medicated ghee, Kushmanda Ghrita, is used as a brain tonic. These are traditional indications reported from the makers and the texts, not proven effects.
What the Research Shows
The honest summary is that very little of this has been tested in people. Laboratory and animal studies of ash gourd extracts have reported antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, stomach-protective, anticonvulsant and blood-sugar-lowering effects, but reviewers point out the lack of clinical trials in humans, and a 2025 review found only two clinical trials of Kushmanda preparations at all. The human evidence is small: a pilot study in which 20 people with indigestion drank ash gourd juice daily for a month and reported improvement; an uncontrolled study of Kushmanda Ghrita in 35 people with depression, whose scores improved over a month; and a 12-week trial in 50 people with type 2 diabetes, in which an ash gourd extract drink lowered diastolic blood pressure but did not change fasting blood sugar more than the comparison drink.
None of those studies tested Kushmanda Rasayanaya itself, which is a very different thing from a juice or an extract: most of what is in the jar is sugar and ghee. Treat it as a traditional nourishing food-medicine, not as a treatment for any disease.
How to Take It
The makers' directions agree closely. Sethsuwa recommends 1 to 2 teaspoons (5 to 10 g) with a glass of milk twice a day, Beam 5 to 10 g twice a day with cow's milk, and Gampaha Wickramarachchi 5 to 10 g, in each case or as directed by an Ayurvedic practitioner. Keep the jar or pouch tightly closed in a cool, dry place and use a dry spoon so that moisture does not spoil it.
- Sugar. The preparation is mostly sugar and honey, so people with diabetes or who are watching their weight or blood sugar should talk to their doctor before taking it.
- Calories. Ghee and sugar make it energy-dense, which is the point for someone recovering from illness, but not for someone trying to lose weight.
- Children, pregnancy and breastfeeding. The packs give no specific guidance; ask a qualified practitioner or doctor first.
- Medicines and symptoms. If you take regular medication, or if a cough, fever, weight loss or discharge persists, see a doctor rather than relying on a tonic.
Who Makes It
Kushmanda Rasayanaya is made by many Sri Lankan Ayurvedic manufacturers and sold in pharmacies, Ayurvedic shops and supermarkets across the island. Among the brands Lakpura ships worldwide:
- Gampaha Wickramarachchi Kushmanda Rasayanaya, from the brand named after Pandit G. P. Wickramarachchi, whose Ayurveda school grew into today's Gampaha Wickramarachchi University of Indigenous Medicine. The same maker also sells a liquid Kushmanda Paniya.
- Sethsuwa Kushmanda Rasayanaya, in a 200 g pack with the full ingredient list above.
- Link Kushmanda Rasayana, from Link Natural Products, in sealed foil pouches of 100 g and 400 g.
- Beam Kushmanda Rasayanaya.
When buying, look for the maker's Department of Ayurveda registration details on the pack. Kushmanda Rasayanaya belongs to the wider world of Sri Lankan traditional medicine, which also includes the island's own Hela Wedakama, where sweet herbal pastes like this have long been part of everyday family care.
