Inside the Dispensary: How a Taila Is Simmered for Seven Days
7 min read
A medicated oil, a Taila, looks simple in the bottle. Behind it are days of work at a low fire. The oils used in our treatment rooms and sold at our pharmacy are prepared in our own dispensary in Minuwangoda, and none of them is hurried.
The method, Taila Paka, is set out in the classical pharmacopoeias. Its purpose is to carry the active parts of the herbs, both those that dissolve in water and those that dissolve in oil, into a sesame oil base that the skin can absorb.
An oil cooked in an afternoon and an oil simmered for seven days may carry the same name on the label. They are not the same medicine.
Our Tailas are simmered over wood-fired earthen hearths in pure copper vessels, which the tradition prefers because they heat evenly and do not taint the oil. The reduction passes through the Khara, Madhyama and Mridu paka stages over seven continuous days, and the physician decides when a batch is finished.
Nothing synthetic is added: no parabens, no artificial stabilisers and no fragrance. A formula such as Mahanarayana Taila, made with more than thirty herbs, depends entirely on that slow transfer from herb to oil.
From raw herbs to the bottle
- Selection: the herbs for the formula are checked, cleaned and weighed.
- Decoction: the coarse herbs are boiled down in water to make a concentrated Kwatha.
- Paste: the fine herbs are ground into a paste, the Kalka.
- Simmering: decoction, paste and sesame oil are combined and reduced slowly over the wood fire, stirred through the day.
- Testing: the physician checks the paste and the oil for the signs that the right paka stage has been reached.
- Filtering and resting: the oil is strained, left to settle and then bottled.
Why slow preparation matters
- Gentle heat moves the herbs' actives into the oil without scorching them.
- All the water must leave the oil; an oil that still holds water will not keep.
- The paka stage decides the use: an oil finished for massage is not the same as one finished for nasal drops.
- A properly finished oil needs no synthetic preservative.
Dr. Sarath Wimalagunasekara
Founder, Chief Ayurvedic Medical Officer
Dr. Sarath graduated with clinical honours from the Institute of Indigenous Medicine at the University of Colombo. Over 28 years he has treated more than 15,000 local and international patients, and he personally oversees every Panchakarma protocol and herbal formulation prepared at the dispensary.
