Terminalia chebula
Encyclopedia
Terminalia chebula is a species of Terminalia
Terminalia (plant)
Terminalia is a genus of large trees of the flowering plant family Combretaceae, comprising around 100 species distributed in tropical regions of the world. This genus gets it name from Latin terminus, referring to the fact that the leaves appear at the very tips of the shoots.Trees of this genus...

, native to southern Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

 east to southwestern China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 (Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...

), and south to Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, Malaysia and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

.

It is a deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...

 tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 growing to 30 metres (98.4 ft) tall, with a trunk up to 1 metres (3.3 ft) in diameter. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are alternate to subopposite in arrangement, oval, 7 centimetre long and 4.5 centimetre broad with a 1 centimetre petiole. The fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 is drupe
Drupe
In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries...

-like, 2 centimetre long and 1.2 centimetre broad, blackish, with five longitudinal ridges.

There are many varieties such as:
  • Terminalia chebula var. chebula. Leaves and shoots hairless, or only hairy when very young.
  • Terminalia chebula var. tomentella (Kurz) C.B.Clarke. Leaves and shoots silvery to orange hairy.

Cultivation and uses

This tree yields smallish, ribbed and nut-like fruits which are picked when still green and then pickled
Pickling
Pickling, also known as brining or corning is the process of preserving food by anaerobic fermentation in brine to produce lactic acid, or marinating and storing it in an acid solution, usually vinegar . The resulting food is called a pickle. This procedure gives the food a salty or sour taste...

, boiled with a little added sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 in their own syrup
Syrup
In cooking, a syrup is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars but showing little tendency to deposit crystals...

 or used in preserves
Fruit preserves
Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits and sugar, often canned or sealed for long-term storage. The preparation of fruit preserves today often involves adding commercial or natural pectin as a gelling agent, although sugar or honey may be used, as well. Prior to World War II, fruit preserve...

. The seed of the fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

, which has an elliptical shape, is an abrasive seed enveloped by a fleshy and firm pulp. It is regarded as a universal panacea
Panacea
In Greek mythology, Panacea was a goddess of healing. She was the daughter of Asclepius and Epione. Panacea and her five sisters each performed a facet of Apollo's art: Panacea was the goddess of cures, Iaso was the goddess of recuperation, Hygieia was the goddess of disease prevention, Aceso was...

 in the Ayur-Vedic Medicine and in the Traditional Tibetan medicine
Traditional Tibetan medicine
Traditional Tibetan medicine is a centuries-old traditional medical system that employs a complex approach to diagnosis, incorporating techniques such as pulse analysis and urinalysis, and utilizes behavior and dietary modification, medicines composed of natural materials and physical therapies...

. It is reputed to cure blindness
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

 and it is believed to inhibit the growth of malignant
Malignant
Malignancy is the tendency of a medical condition, especially tumors, to become progressively worse and to potentially result in death. Malignancy in cancers is characterized by anaplasia, invasiveness, and metastasis...

 tumours.

In Urdu and Hindi it is called Harad, Haritaki, or Harada, respectively 'Inknut'. In Sri Lanka it is called Aralu. In Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

 it is called as 'Hirada', in Kannada it is called 'Alalekaayi' and in Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 it is called 'Kadukkai'. In Bengali it is called horitoky. In Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...

 it is called Hilikha. In Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...

 it is called 'Karakkaya'. In the United States it is found in some Indian stores; it is known as 'Harde Whole'.

The dry nut's peel is used to cure cold-related nagging coughs. The bark/peel of the nut is placed in the cheek. Although the material does not dissolve, the resulting saliva, bitter in taste, is believed to have medicinal qualities to cure cold related coughs.
Its fruit has digestive, anti-inflammatory, anthelmentic, cardiotonic, aphrodisiac and restorative properties and is additionally beneficial in flatulence, constipation, piles
Hemorrhoid
Hemorrhoids or haemorrhoids , are vascular structures in the anal canal which help with stool control. They become pathological or piles when swollen or inflamed. In their physiological state they act as a cushion composed of arterio-venous channels and connective tissue that aid the passage of...

, cough and colds.

T. chebula contains terflavin B
Terflavin B
Terflavin B is a hydrolysable tannin. It can be found in Myrobalanus chebula , the black chebulic, and in Terminalia catappa, the Indian almond....

, a type of tannin while chebulinic acid
Chebulinic acid
Chebulinic acid is an ellagitannin found in the seeds of Euphoria longana and in the fruits of Terminalia chebula....

 is found in the fruits.

Botany

Medium to large deciduous tree up to 30 m. Leaves are elliptic-oblong, acute tip, cordate at the base, margins entire, glabrous above with a yellowish pubescence below. Flowers monoecious, dull white to yellow, strong unpleasant odour, borne in terminal spikes or short panicles. Fruits glabrous, ellipsoid to ovoid drupes, yellow to orange brown in colour, single angled stone. Found in deciduous forests of Indian subcontinent, dry slopes up to 900 meters in elevation

Part used

Fruit; seven types are recognized (i.e. vijaya, rohini, putana, amrita, abhaya, jivanti and chetaki), based on the region the fruit is harvested, as well as the colour and shape of the fruit. Generally speaking, the vijaya variety is preferred, which is traditionally grown in the Vindhya mountain range of central India, and has a roundish as opposed to a more angular shape

Constituents

Researchers have isolated a number of glycosides from Haritaki, including the triterpenes arjunglucoside I, arjungenin, and the chebulosides I and II. Other constituents include a coumarin
Coumarin
Coumarin is a fragrant chemical compound in the benzopyrone chemical class, found in many plants, notably in high concentration in the tonka bean , vanilla grass , sweet woodruff , mullein , sweet grass , cassia cinnamon and sweet clover...

 conjugated with gallic acids called chebulin, as well as other phenolic compounds including ellagic acid
Ellagic acid
Ellagic acid is a natural phenol antioxidant found in numerous fruits and vegetables including blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, walnuts, pecans, pomegranates, wolfberry and other plant foods...

, 2,4-chebulyl-β-D-glucopyranose, chebulinic acid
Chebulinic acid
Chebulinic acid is an ellagitannin found in the seeds of Euphoria longana and in the fruits of Terminalia chebula....

, gallic acid
Gallic acid
Gallic acid is a trihydroxybenzoic acid, a type of phenolic acid, a type of organic acid, also known as 3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid, found in gallnuts, sumac, witch hazel, tea leaves, oak bark, and other plants. The chemical formula is C6H23COOH. Gallic acid is found both free and as part of...

, ethyl gallate
Ethyl gallate
Ethyl gallate is a food additive with E number E313. It is the ethyl ester of gallic acid. Ethyl gallate is added to food as an antioxidant....

, punicalagin
Punicalagin
Punicalagin is an ellagitannin, a polyphenol compound which are isomers of 2,3--hexahydroxydiphenoyl-4,6--gallagyl-D-glucose, hydrolysable tannins with a molecular weight of 1084. They are found in forms alpha and beta in pomegranates...

, terflavin A, terchebin, luteolin
Luteolin
Luteolin is a yellow crystalline compound. It is a flavonoid; to be specific, it is one of the more common flavones. From preliminary research, it is thought to play a role in the human body possibly as an antioxidant, a free radical scavenger, a promoter of carbohydrate metabolism, or an immune...

, and tannic acid
Tannic acid
Tannic acid is a specific commercial form of tannin, a type of polyphenol. Its weak acidity is due to the numerous phenol groups in the structure...

. Chebulic acid
Chebulic acid
Chebulic acid is a phenolic acid compound isolated from the ripe fruits of Terminalia chebula....

 is a phenolic acid compound isolated from the ripe fruits.

Ayurveda

  • Rasa (taste): All but salty, mainly astringent, bitter, hot, sweet
  • Virya (energy): Heating
  • Vipaka (post-digestive effect): sweet
  • Guna (quality): light, dry
  • Dosha: VPK=
  • Dhatu: All tissues
  • Srotas: digestive, excretory, nervous, respiratory, female reproductive

Action

Haritaki is a rejuvenative, laxative (unripe), astringent (ripe), anthelmintic, nervine, expectorant, tonic, carminative
Carminative
A carminative, also known as carminativum , is a herb or preparation that either prevents formation of gas in the gastrointestinal tract or facilitates the expulsion of said gas, thereby combating flatulence...

, and appetite stimulant. It is used in people who have leprosy
Leprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...

 (including skin disorders), anemia
Anemia
Anemia is a decrease in number of red blood cells or less than the normal quantity of hemoglobin in the blood. However, it can include decreased oxygen-binding ability of each hemoglobin molecule due to deformity or lack in numerical development as in some other types of hemoglobin...

, narcosis
Narcosis
Narcosis may refer to:* Narcosis, the unconsciousness induced by a narcotic drug* Nitrogen narcosis, an effect of diving deep with nitrogen* Hydrogen narcosis, an effect of diving deep with hydrogenIn music:* Narcosis , an English metal band...

, piles, chronic, intermittent fever
Fever
Fever is a common medical sign characterized by an elevation of temperature above the normal range of due to an increase in the body temperature regulatory set-point. This increase in set-point triggers increased muscle tone and shivering.As a person's temperature increases, there is, in...

, heart disease
Heart disease
Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...

, diarrhea
Diarrhea
Diarrhea , also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day. It is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide. The loss of fluids through diarrhea can cause dehydration and...

, anorexia
Anorexia (symptom)
Anorexia is the decreased sensation of appetite...

, cough and excessive secretion of mucus, and a range of other complaints and symptoms. According to the Bhavaprakasha, Haritaki was derived from a drop of nectar from Indra’s cup. Haritaki is use to mitigate Vata and eliminate ama (toxins), indicated by constipation, a thick greyish tongue coating, abdominal pain and distension, foul feces and breath, flatulence, weakness, and a slow pulse. The fresh fruit is dipana and the powdered dried fruit made into a paste and taken with jaggery is malashodhana, removing impurities and wastes from the body. Haritaki is an effective purgative when taken as a powder, but when the whole dried fruit is boiled the resulting decoction is grahi, useful in the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery. The fresh or reconstituted fruit taken before meals stimulates digestion, whereas if taken with meals it increases intelligence, nourishes the senses and purifies the digestive and genitourinary tract. Taken after meals Haritaki treats diseases caused by the aggravation of Vayu, Pitta and Kapha as a result of unwholesome food and drinks. Haritaki is a rasayana to Vata, increasing awareness, and has a nourishing, restorative effect on the central nervous system.Haritaki improves digestion, promotes the absorption of nutrients, and regulates colon function.

Contraindications

Pregnancy due to its laxative and descending nature, dehydration, severe exhaustion, emaciation, pitta if taken in excess.

External links

  • Haritaki In Ayurveda Contains a detailed monograph on Terminalia chebula(Haritaki; Abhaya) as well as a discussion of health benefits and usage in clinical practice. Available online at http://www.toddcaldecott.com/index.php/herbs/learning-herbs/361-haritaki
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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