Jawarish, Majoon, Khameera, Arq, Sharbat: Unani Preparations Decoded
A hakeem’s shelf reads like a menu in another language: jawarish, majoon, khameera, arq, sharbat, itrifal, laooq, safoof. They are not brand names and they are not secret. Each word describes a way of preparing herbs, and once you know the forms you can read almost any Unani label and guess what is inside and how sweet it will be.
Quick facts
- Jawarish: coarse, grainy sweet paste for digestion, often cumin or pomegranate based
- Majoon: smooth electuary, herbs ground fine and kneaded into honey or sugar syrup
- Khameera: soft, whipped-looking sweet base, often with pearl, silk or silver leaf in the classic versions
- Arq: a water distillate; no sugar, no alcohol in the traditional sense
- Sharbat: a sugar syrup steeped with herbs or fruit, diluted to drink
- Sugar: the first three are mostly sugar or honey by weight; sharbat is sugar syrup; arq is the odd one out
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Why so many forms exist
Before capsules, a preparation had to do three jobs at once: keep the herbs from spoiling, make bitter roots swallowable, and control how fast the body met them. Honey and sugar solved the first two. Distilling solved a different problem, capturing the volatile, aromatic part of a plant like ajwain or rose in a stable water. The names below are the Unani answers to those problems, refined over roughly a thousand years from Baghdad to Delhi to the Hamdard and Qarshi factories of today.
| Form | Base | Texture | Classic examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jawarish | Sugar or honey | Coarse, grainy | Jawarish Kamuni, Jawarish Anarain, Jawarish Jalinoos |
| Majoon | Honey or sugar syrup | Smooth, thick paste | Majoon Dabeed-ul-Ward, Majoon Arad Khurma, Majoon Hazim |
| Khameera | Sugar syrup, beaten | Soft, pale, spoonable | Khameera Marwareed, Khameera Gaozaban, Khameera Abresham |
| Arq | Water (distilled) | Thin, clear liquid | Arq Gulab, Arq Ajwain, Arq Podina, Arq Mako, Arq Kasni |
| Sharbat | Sugar syrup | Thick, pourable | Sharbat Bazoori, Sharbat Unnab, Sharbat Sadar, Sharbat Banafsha |
The five forms, one by one
Jawarish: the digestive with grit in it
Jawarish is deliberately coarse. The herbs are pounded, not powdered, then bound with syrup so that you feel seeds and fibres on the tongue. Nearly all of them are for the stomach: Jawarish Kamuni is built on zeera (cumin) with ginger, black pepper and sometimes mint; Jawarish Anarain on pomegranate; Jawarish Jalinoos is a larger, warming mixture aimed at “weak digestion”. The typical instruction, framed as tradition, is a half to one teaspoon (roughly 5 to 10 g) after a meal with plain water. It tastes sweet, hot and faintly sour. If you make saunf-ajwain water at home, you already have the idea of a jawarish without the sugar.
Majoon: the electuary
Majoon is finer and richer. Powdered herbs, and often nuts, seeds and dried fruit, are kneaded into honey or thick sugar syrup until the paste holds its shape. Some are simple digestives (Majoon Hazim), some are rose-based stomach tonics (Majoon Dabeed-ul-Ward, with gulab, saffron and mastagi), some are winter “nourishers” heavy with dates and almonds (Majoon Arad Khurma). This last group is where marketing gets loud: majoon for stamina, majoon for “mardana taqat”, majoon for weight. A majoon is a sweet herb paste. It can be a pleasant winter food. Read any promise beyond that with the same care you would give to any other supplement, and read our note on adulterated stamina products in the kushta article before buying anything sold for “taqat”.
Khameera: the soft one with the silver leaf
Khameera is made by boiling herbs into sugar syrup and then beating it as it cools until it turns pale, soft and almost creamy, which is where the name (from khameer, leaven) comes from. The classic ones carry an expensive ingredient: Khameera Marwareed has powdered pearl, Khameera Abresham has silk cocoon, and many are finished with a leaf of chandi ka varq (silver). Khameera Gaozaban, built on borage leaf, is the household one, traditionally given for a “weak heart”, palpitations and low spirits in winter. Traditionally it is taken as about a teaspoon in the morning, sometimes with a little milk. Silver leaf is inert and passes through; what matters far more is that a spoon of khameera is mostly sugar.
Arq: the distillate
Arq is the one form with no sugar. Plant material is boiled in water and the steam is condensed, so what you get is water carrying the aromatic oils of the plant. Arq Gulab is rose water. Arq Ajwain is used for gas and colic, Arq Podina for nausea, Arq Mako and Arq Kasni are the “liver” arqs, Arq Badiyan is fennel. Despite the word arq being used for alcohol elsewhere, a Unani arq is not alcoholic; it is a hydrosol. Traditionally taken as 2 to 4 tablespoons (about 30 to 60 ml) in half a glass of water, or a whole cup of Arq Gulab as a sharbat base. The same distillation logic runs through our rose water guide.
Sharbat: the syrup
Sharbat is the summer form. Herbs, seeds or fruit are boiled, strained, and the liquid is cooked with sugar until it thickens to a syrup that keeps for months. Sharbat Bazoori (for “heat” and urine), Sharbat Unnab (jujube, for skin and cough), Sharbat Sadar (a chest syrup), Sharbat Banafsha (violet, for colds). A tablespoon or two goes into a glass of cold water. In general terms a tablespoon of any traditional sharbat is largely sugar syrup, in the region of a couple of teaspoons of sugar, so a tall glass with two tablespoons is a sugary drink whatever herb is in it. That is worth counting if you watch your weight or your blood sugar; see the numbers in our sugary drinks article.
The smaller words on the shelf
Itrifal is a majoon built on the three myrobalans (harar, bahera, amla), the Unani cousin of triphala, used for constipation and “head” complaints. Laooq is a thick linctus for cough, licked off a spoon. Safoof is a plain powder. Habb and qurs are pills and tablets. Roghan is an oil. Kushta is a calcined mineral or metal and belongs in a category of its own; it is the one form on this list we would tell you to avoid outright.
How these are traditionally taken
- Jawarish or majoon: half to one teaspoon (5 to 10 g) after the main meal, followed by half a glass (125 ml) of plain water or a spoon of the matching arq. Not on an empty stomach; the spices bite.
- Khameera: about one teaspoon (5 g) first thing in the morning, followed by a few sips of water or milk. Silver leaf goes in with it.
- Arq: 2 to 4 tablespoons (30 to 60 ml) stirred into half a glass of water, usually after food for the digestive arqs and at any time for Arq Gulab.
- Sharbat: 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 ml) in a 250 ml glass of chilled water. Count it as you would any sweet drink.
- Itrifal: one teaspoon at bedtime with warm water, and not beyond a week without asking, because its softening effect works like a plant laxative and the bowel soon learns to lean on it.
All of this is tradition, not a prescription. Packs carry their own directions, and those, not a blog, are what to follow for a specific product.
In a classical dispensary each form had a shelf life and a season. Arqs were distilled fresh each spring and kept in dark glass. Majoon and jawarish were made in autumn, matured for weeks (40 days, by some accounts) in a covered clay or glass jar before use, and the sugar was the preservative. Sharbats were summer stock. A family often had one jar of jawarish for the whole household, taken after the heaviest meal of the week, which is closer to a digestive sweet than to a medicine.
Myth: a traditional form is gentle because it is old and sweet
Sugar and honey do not make the herbs inside gentle. Itrifal and many majoons have laxative herbs; some khameeras have strong aromatics; a “stamina” majoon from an unlicensed maker may not be herbal at all. The form tells you the texture and the base. It does not tell you the strength, and it does not tell you the maker was honest. Check the label the way our DRAP enlistment guide describes before anything goes in the trolley.
Diabetes: jawarish, majoon, khameera and sharbat are sugar-based, and a teaspoon or two a day adds up; ask your doctor before adding any of them, and never take them as a substitute for medicine. Blood pressure: preparations containing mulethi (licorice) can push blood pressure up and lower potassium. Blood thinners: many aromatic and bitter herbs change how warfarin and similar medicines work, so tell your doctor. Pregnancy and breastfeeding: skip all of these unless a doctor says otherwise; laxative herbs and strong aromatics were never assessed for pregnancy. Children under 12: only what the pack says for that age, and nothing with senna-family herbs. Babies under 1: nothing honey-based at all, since honey can carry the spores behind infant botulism, and majoon and khameera are honey or syrup through and through. And whatever form it comes in, chest pain, breathlessness, blood in stool or urine, jaundice, a lump, weight loss you did not plan, a fever over 3 days, a fit, sudden weakness or speech trouble, and any fever in a baby under 3 months go to a doctor, not to a jar.
That is the shelf decoded. When a hakeem says “yeh majoon subah lena”, you now know it is a sweet herb paste, roughly how much a spoon carries, and which questions to ask. More decoding lives in the Unani & Herbal, Decoded series.
Asked at the counter
Is arq alcoholic?
No. A Unani arq is a water distillate, the same idea as rose water. The word is shared with distilled spirits in other contexts, which causes the confusion, but Arq Ajwain or Arq Gulab from a Unani maker contain no alcohol.
Can a diabetic take jawarish or majoon?
They are sugar or honey based, so a teaspoon carries a real sugar load. Some makers now sell sugar-free versions. Either way, ask your doctor first and count it, and never let a majoon stand in for prescribed medicine.
What is the silver leaf in khameera for?
Tradition holds silver to be cooling and strengthening. Modern chemistry says a leaf of pure silver is inert and passes straight through. It is harmless in the tiny amounts used; it is also doing nothing. Be sure it is silver and not an aluminium substitute, which is a known cheat in cheap varq.
How long does an open jar keep?
Sugar-based pastes and syrups keep for months in a cool, dry cupboard with a dry spoon; mould on the surface or a fermented smell means bin it. Arqs keep less well once opened, a few weeks in the fridge, and should be discarded if cloudy or sour.
Jawarish or majoon: which one for gas after meals?
Traditionally jawarish, because it is built on cumin, ginger and pepper. Honestly, a pinch of ajwain in warm water or a walk after dinner does a similar job with no sugar. Persistent bloating for more than 2 weeks, or bloating with weight loss, blood, or vomiting, needs a doctor.
Are these safe in pregnancy?
Treat them as not assessed. Several contain laxative or strongly aromatic herbs, and there is no reliable pregnancy data for the classic formulas. Ask your obstetrician before taking any, including the “gentle” ones like Khameera Gaozaban.