Roghan Meaning (Unani Oil): Why Most Are Sesame, and How to Read One

Search “roghan meaning unani oil” and the answer is one word: roghan (raughan, Arabic duhn) simply means oil. The useful follow-up is: which kind of oil? Unani roghans fall into three classes that behave completely differently on skin and in the body, and the label tells you which one you’re holding if you know where to look.

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Roghan meaning: what the word covers and what it doesn’t

In a Unani formulary the word roghan is attached to anything oily that is rubbed, dropped or occasionally eaten: almond oil, a rose-infused massage oil, a red pain oil, and in older books even animal fats. The name tells you nothing about strength. A spoon of Roghan Badam Shirin on a baby’s skin is sweet almond oil; a few drops of rose essential oil on the same skin would burn. The pillar on Unani forms gives roghan one line; this page is the hub for every oil on the site.

Expressed oils: pressed from a seed

An expressed oil is squeezed out of a seed or fruit. Sesame (kunjad or til), almond (badam), olive (zaitoon), black seed (kalonji), castor (arandi), mustard (sarson) and coconut (narial) are all expressed. The oil is the seed’s own fat, with its own smell and its own allergy risk. Most are food, which is why the almond and olive roghans are the only ones in this article anyone should ever swallow, and castor is the exception that is pressed but is a laxative, not a food.

Each has a page that owns its uses: badam rogan (and why bitter almond oil is a different, toxic product), roghan zaitoon and the ear-drop myth, til oil, and arandi. Pressing method matters more than the Unani name: cold pressed keeps aroma and some fragile compounds, refined oil is blander and keeps longer.

Infused oils: a herb cooked into sesame

This is the class most people mean by “Unani roghan” and the one most misunderstood. Roghan-e-Gul (rose), Roghan-e-Banafsha (violet), Roghan-e-Kahu (lettuce seed), Roghan-e-Kaddu (bottle gourd), Roghan-e-Babuna (chamomile) and the red pain oils are made by cooking plant material in a carrier oil until the water has gone, then straining. The carrier is almost always Roghan Kunjad, sesame oil, chosen because it is stable, cheap and traditionally rated “balanced” in temperament.

Infused oils are external products. They go on the scalp, temples, joints or soles. They are not essential oils, so the drops-per-tablespoon dilution rule does not apply, but a patch test does, and the “no oil in the ear, no oil in a child’s nose” rule applies to all of them. Two sibling pages sort the infused shelf by use: the cooling head oils (kahu, kaddu, khashkhash) and the red pain oils for joints.

Essential oils: a different thing wearing the same word

Rose, mint, clove and eucalyptus “oils” at the pansari are steam-distilled concentrates, hundreds of times stronger than an infused roghan of the same flower. A pansari may call them roghan or itar interchangeably. The difference is safety: an essential oil must be diluted in a carrier before it touches skin, must never be swallowed, and must never go on a baby. Our essential oil dilution chart gives the amounts by age. If a tiny bottle smells strong enough to fill a room, it is in this class whatever the label calls it.

How to read a roghan label

1. Find the base. “Roghan Kunjad”, “sesame oil” or “til oil” in the list means an infused oil. A single seed name with nothing else means an expressed oil.
2. Find the herb and its amount. The named herb per 100 ml tells you how much plant went in; a label with no amounts tells you nothing.
3. Sada or khas. Sada means plain, the basic formula. A khas (special) or ambari version differs somewhere in the ingredient line, so compare the two lines side by side rather than the two prices; the difference is sometimes one costly ingredient and nothing else.
4. Look for camphor (kafoor), menthol or wintergreen. These make it a warming or pain oil and rule it out for babies and broken skin.
5. Look for an enlistment number and expiry. Oils go rancid; a sharp paint-like smell means it has.

The oddball Hamdard roghans, and what their names mean

Three names turn up in every roghan search and deserve a plain flag. Roghan Baiza Murgh is egg-yolk oil, sold for hair fall and patchy alopecia; the claims are traditional, egg allergy applies, and alopecia areata in patches is a condition for a dermatologist first. Roghan Zarareeh is named for zarareeh, blister beetles (Mylabris), whose toxin cantharidin raises blisters on skin and has caused serious poisoning when swallowed; the sibling Roghan Zarareeh page explains why it is not a casual hair oil. Anything sold as a “phosphorus” oil for nerves or vigour is a red flag by name alone and not a home product. None of these should be confused with the gentle infused flower oils.

Roghan questions people search

Bottom line

Roghan is just oil, and the word hides three different products. Expressed oils are seed fats, some edible. Infused oils are sesame with a herb cooked in, external only, and the label shows it. Essential oils are concentrates that need a dilution chart. Learn to find the base on the label, keep camphor away from babies, and treat the beetle, egg and “phosphorus” oils as practitioner products. Every oil page above sits in Unani & Herbal, Decoded.

Sources

• Hamdard Roghan Kahu retail listing reproducing the label: each 100 ml contains lettuce seed 200 g and Roghan Kunjad 100 g
• US FDA, Food allergies: sesame declared the ninth major allergen from 1 January 2023
• Patra et al., Camphor poisoning: an unusual cause of seizure in children, Journal of Pediatric Neurosciences, 2015
• Zhang et al., Cantharidin: a double-edged sword in medicine and toxicology, Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2025
• Tagwireyi et al., Cantharidin poisoning due to blister beetle ingestion, Toxicon, 2000