Saussurea lappa རུ་རྟ་

English name: Costus

Tibetan name: Ru-ta (རུ་རྟ་)

Location: found in Himalayas at a height of 2500-4000 meters above sea level 

Part used: root (རྩ་བ་)

Taste and potency: hot and bitter taste (རོ་ཚ་ལ་ཁ་བ་); bitter post-digestive taste (ཞུ་རྗེས་ཁ་བ་); oily, rough and warming potency (ནུས་པ་སྣུམ་ཞིང་རྩུབ་ལ་དྲོ་བའོ་)

Profound value of Saussurea lappa in Tibetan Medicine:

• Blood and Wind mixed disorders ( ཁྲག་དང་རླུང་འཐབ་པ་ ): balances blood pressure. Strengthens the walls of blood vessels and improves circulation. Dissolves atherosclerotic plaques in the blood vessels. Treats various types of headaches including migraines. Relieves tachycardia, heart palpitations and rhythm disorders. Used for imbalance of Life-sustaining Wind (སྲོག་རླུང་). Costus is also used for the treatment of amenorrhea ( ཟླ་མཚན་འགག་པ་). 
• Digestion: Costus relieves indigestion  (ཟས་མི་འཇུ་བ་), and soothes stomach and intestinal distention and discomfort (ཕོ་བ་དང་རྒྱུ་སྨད་སྦོས་བརྒྱངས་བྱེད་པ་).
• Respiratory Support (གློ་ནད་): it helps clear congestion, soothe irritated airways, and promote easier breathing. Costus is also used for irritated and painful throat disorders, e.g. diphtheria (གག་པ་). 
• Costus removes dead tissues (ཤ་རོ་གཅོད་པ་), heals chronic sore, and destroys tumours and masses. 

According to the Second Tibetan Medicine Tantra (བཤད་པའི་རྒྱུད།):