Joshanda Recipe at Home: What Is in It and Who Should Skip It
Five unnab, a pinch of dried banafsha, a finger of mulethi and a knob of ginger, simmered until the kitchen smells like a hakeem’s shop in December. That is joshanda, and a homemade joshanda recipe costs a few rupees a cup, tastes of what’s actually in it, and lets you leave out the one ingredient that some people should not be drinking.
In brief
- Joshanda means: a boiled herbal decoction; “josh” is the boil
- Typical herbs: unnab, banafsha, gaozaban, mulethi, khatmi, saunf, adrak, kali mirch, laung
- What it does: warms, soothes a raw throat, loosens a stuffy head for an hour or two
- What it doesn’t: shorten a cold, replace medicine, or suit everyone
- Skip or ask first: pregnancy, high blood pressure, heart or kidney disease, diabetes (packets), children under 2
What is in a typical joshanda
Every pansari has his own version, and every packet brand has a proprietary list, but the core is stable across Unani tradition. Unnab (dried jujube, the little red date) for a raw throat. Banafsha (sweet violet flowers) for chest and head. Gaozaban (borage leaf) as a general soother. Mulethi (licorice root) for sweetness and a coated throat. Khatmi (marshmallow or hollyhock seed and flower) for the same reason. Then the warming kitchen spices: saunf, dried or fresh adrak, kali mirch, laung, sometimes dalchini and tulsi. Some hakeems add sapistan (lasora berries) and tukhm-e-katan (linseed).
The packet sachets sold at every khoka in winter take that idea and change it. Most are largely sugar or a sweetener, with a small dose of herb extracts and flavour. Some list menthol. A few “instant” ones include paracetamol or other medicines, which is fine if you know it and dangerous if you’re also taking paracetamol tablets for the same cold. Read the sachet. If it says “sugar-free” and you have diabetes, still read the sachet. The homemade version below is herbs, water and as much or as little gur as you choose.
A joshanda recipe at home, by grams
Makes 2 cups, about 300 ml after reduction. Enough for one person for a day, or two people once.
- Measure into a small pan: 5 dried unnab, slit or lightly crushed; 2 g dried banafsha (about 1 heaped teaspoon); 1 g dried gaozaban (a scant teaspoon, optional); 3 g mulethi (one 3 cm stick, lightly bashed, or half a teaspoon of powder); 1 teaspoon saunf; 4 whole kali mirch, crushed; 2 laung; a 2 cm piece of fresh adrak, sliced thin. Tulsi, 5 fresh leaves, if you have a pot.
- Add 500 ml of cold water. Bring it to the boil, then drop to the lowest flame.
- Simmer uncovered for 12 to 15 minutes, until the liquid is down to roughly 300 ml and the colour is a deep amber. Don’t boil it hard; the violet turns bitter.
- Strain through a tea strainer into a cup. Press the herbs lightly with a spoon and discard them.
- Sweeten if you want to: half a teaspoon of gur or shakkar per cup, or a teaspoon of honey stirred in once it has cooled to drinking warmth. Honey never for a child under 1.
- Drink warm, one cup, morning and one at night. Keep the second cup covered in the fridge and rewarm it; don’t hold it more than 24 hours.
If you can’t find banafsha or gaozaban, leave them out. Unnab, mulethi, ginger, pepper and saunf make a perfectly respectable joshanda on their own. For the mulethi itself, buying whole sticks beats powder, which is often cut with flour; our mulethi tea guide explains how to check it.
The no-mulethi version
Anyone with high blood pressure, heart failure, kidney disease, low potassium, or who is pregnant, makes the same recipe without the mulethi and doubles the unnab to 10. Sweeten with gur. It tastes a little sharper. It’s the version this article would rather you drank if you’re unsure.
In Unani medicine, nazla and zukam were understood as cold, moist matter settling in the head and chest, and joshanda was the hot, dry answer to it, a decoction of warming, softening herbs that “ripened” the phlegm so it could be expelled. The classic Unani formula for a cold is a joshanda of unnab, banafsha, gaozaban and khatmi, sometimes with sapistan, taken warm on an empty stomach. The temperament logic is tradition. What it gets right in practice is that a warm, aromatic, slightly sweet drink taken slowly does make a head cold more bearable, which is most of what anyone can promise.
What joshanda can and cannot do
Can: warm you, loosen a blocked nose for a while through the steam and the pepper, coat and soothe a scratchy throat, get 300 ml of fluid into someone who isn’t drinking enough, and give a sick person something comforting to hold. Ginger and saunf settle a queasy stomach. The ritual itself helps a person rest.
Cannot: shorten a cold, which lasts 7 to 10 days with or without it. Prevent one. Do anything for a bacterial chest infection, a sinus infection, or the flu beyond comfort. Replace paracetamol for a high fever. Or make a child who is breathing fast any safer. It’s a drink. A good one. The line between the comfort it gives and the medicine it isn’t is worth holding on to, because the packets blur it on purpose.
A cold that needs more than joshanda: fever above 38.5°C for more than 3 days, breathlessness, chest pain, a cough lasting more than 3 weeks, green or bloody sputum with fever, or a sore throat with white spots and no cough, which the tonsils and strep guide covers. Steam from a bowl adds more decongestion than any drink; the safe method is in the ajwain steam post. And a bowl of thin yakhni beats a third cup of joshanda when appetite has gone.
Who should avoid joshanda, or change it
The herb that causes trouble is mulethi. Licorice root contains glycyrrhizin, which in regular daily amounts raises blood pressure and lowers potassium. A cup or two for a few days is a small dose for a healthy adult. Drunk daily through the winter, or by someone whose pressure is already up, it is not small. Packet joshandas rarely say how much licorice they contain, which is a reason to make your own.
You have high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease or take diuretics or digoxin: use the no-mulethi version, and keep any joshanda to a cup a day for a week at most. Pregnancy and breastfeeding: skip mulethi entirely and check with your antenatal doctor before drinking any herbal decoction daily; banafsha and gaozaban have no established safety record in pregnancy, so the plainer unnab, ginger and saunf brew is the sensible one. Diabetes: packet joshanda is mostly sugar; make your own and skip the sweetener. Children: a small warm cup of the ginger and unnab version is fine over 2; nothing with honey under 1, and for a child under 2 with a cold, saline drops and fluids do more. Anyone on blood thinners such as warfarin should ask before drinking daily herbal brews. Stop and see a doctor if you get headaches, palpitations, muscle weakness or swelling while drinking it regularly. And do not use a “medicated” sachet alongside paracetamol tablets without checking the sachet’s contents first.
Tonight
Boil the recipe above while the kettle is on for everyone else’s chai. Strain it, drink one cup slowly over 10 minutes with your feet under the razai, put the second in the fridge for the morning, and if the throat is the main complaint, gargle with warm salt water first (half a teaspoon in 250 ml) so the joshanda is soothing a clean throat.
This piece is part of Desi Remedies. For the version of ginger and tulsi that lives in a chai cup rather than a decoction, see adrak tulsi chai two ways.
Questions about joshanda
Is packet joshanda safe to drink every day?
Most sachets are largely sugar with a small amount of herb extract, and some contain licorice or added medicines. One a day for a few days is fine for a healthy adult; daily all winter is not sensible for anyone with blood pressure or diabetes. Read the sachet.
Can I drink joshanda in pregnancy?
Ask your antenatal doctor first. If you do, use the version without mulethi, banafsha or gaozaban: unnab, ginger, saunf and a little gur.
Does joshanda work for nazla zukam?
It soothes the throat, warms you and clears the nose for a short while. It does not shorten the cold. Expect comfort, not cure.
Can children have joshanda?
Over 2, a small cup of the mild ginger and unnab version without honey is fine. Under 2, stick to saline drops, fluids and steam in a bathroom. Never honey under 1.
Which joshanda is best for cough?
For a dry, tickly cough the mulethi and unnab version coats best (if your blood pressure allows). For a wet cough, the ginger and pepper version with steam alongside. Neither treats the cough itself.
Can I make joshanda without banafsha?
Yes. Unnab, mulethi, ginger, saunf, pepper and cloves make a good decoction. Banafsha adds a floral note and is traditional, not essential.
How long does homemade joshanda keep?
Covered in the fridge, 24 hours. Rewarm gently. Do not keep it at room temperature overnight.
Does joshanda raise blood pressure?
The mulethi (licorice) in it can, with regular use, and it can lower potassium. Anyone with hypertension should use the no-mulethi version and keep it to a cup a day for a few days.