Butterfly pea flower Aparajita

Botany

Clitoria ternatea is a perennial climbing vine of the Fabaceae family (legumes). The epithet ternatea refers to the island of Ternate, in the Moluccas (Indonesia), from where the species was described; today it grows throughout tropical Southeast Asia, India, Sri Lanka, the Caribbean and many warm regions. Its flowers have a corolla of deep indigo blue with a pale heart, whose shape recalls now a butterfly ("butterfly pea"), now a sacred conch ("Shankhpushpi"). It is also called blue pea or Asian pigeonwings in English, bunga telang in Malaysia and Indonesia, anchan (อัญชัน) in Thailand, and gokarna, "cow's ear", in Sanskrit texts, after the shape of the flower. All parts of the plant (roots, seeds, leaves, flowers) are used traditionally; the flower gives the blue.

Descriptive phytochemistry

The blue colour comes from six main anthocyanins, including the ternatins, acylated anthocyanins specific to Clitoria ternatea that give remarkable colour stability. Anthocyanins change structure with pH: blue in neutral conditions, pink-violet in acid, turquoise green in alkaline. The flower works as a living pH indicator. It also holds flavonoids (quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin), sterols (beta-sitosterol) and minor alkaloids.

Aparajita produces cyclotides, macrocyclic peptides of about thirty amino acids, folded into a "cyclic cystine knot" that makes them extraordinarily stable (resistant to heat, acid and proteases). Studied since the 1990s as pharmaceutical scaffolds and natural insecticides, they make this plant a subject of biotechnology research in its own right. Tradition named it invincible; chemistry finds exceptional stability in it, and the two forms of knowledge look at each other without contradiction.

What the studies report

Work on Aparajita remains largely preclinical (animal models). A 2003 study (Jain et al.) reports an anxiolytic effect in rats compared with diazepam, without the associated sedation: a laboratory result, neither a clinical promise nor a dosage. Other work describes acetylcholinesterase inhibition and a rise in hippocampal acetylcholine in rodents, a mechanism often associated with memory and learning, as well as antioxidant activity from the anthocyanins. INFUSE does not sell Aparajita as an anxiolytic: these data shed light on what tradition said, that the flower supports a mind that holds, without replacing it. If you have any questions about anxiety, sleep or cognition, consult a healthcare professional.

Lineage and long history

The name Aparajita places the flower within Durga's victory over chaos: the dharma that holds under pressure. It is offered in the three pujas (Durga, Saraswati, Shiva) as victory, wisdom and concentration. The conch signature (Shankhpushpi) links it to the primordial sound of Vishnu, to right speech, to the memory of the texts. Ayurveda places it among the Medhya Rasayana, the plants that nourish the substrate of thought.

Beyond India, the flower becomes cuisine and colour. In Kelantan, nasi kerabu, rice dyed blue, was a court dish: to eat blue was to eat under the signature of the sky. In Thailand, nam dok anchan is drunk cold at the markets; in Indonesia, the flower colours desserts and offerings (pewarna alami). One thesis runs through these tables: medicine and feast are one domain, and the beauty of the dish is part of the remedy.

A note of clarity: the Shankhpushpi confusion

The name Shankhpushpi refers, depending on the Ayurvedic lineage, to at least two different plants: Clitoria ternatea (Aparajita) and Convolvulus pluricaulis, with distinct profiles. Both are classed as Medhya Rasayana and carry the conch signature, but they are different plants. INFUSE works exclusively with Clitoria ternatea, the blue flower. Check the botanical identity before buying elsewhere.

Safety notes

In Southeast Asia, the flower colours drinks and dishes. In Europe, EFSA raised safety objections in 2022 to its use as an infusion, linked to its cyclotides: haemolytic and cytotoxic effects were observed in vitro for some of them, and their toxicological profile remains unknown. The European Commission closed the application for authorisation as a food on 12 February 2026. In the European Union, the dried flower of Clitoria ternatea is not authorised as a food, under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 on novel foods. INFUSE sells it for non-food use: colour, bathing, dyeing. As a precaution: it is avoided during pregnancy (uterine-stimulating activity reported at high doses, not confirmed by a traced source); take care with anticoagulant treatment (slight antiplatelet effect reported) or blood-sugar-lowering treatment (theoretical additive effect). In a colour workshop with children, the blue water stays in the bowls and on the paper, for the wonder of it.