The New Nation - Internet Edition

-Jamayet Ali

Amlaki fruit has been held in high esteem in indigenous medicine. This fruit is also probably the richest known natural source of vitamin C. It is a small fleshy and obscurely 6-lobbed fruit which is native to Bangladesh and India. It also grows in Sri Lanka, China, Malay Islands and other tropical and subtropical countries. The plant is usually propagated by seeds. It may also be propagated vegetatively by budding, cutting and in arching. The fruit is green when tender, changing to light yellow or brick red colour when mature. It is sour and astringent and is occasionally eaten raw. It is much esteemed for making pickles, preserves and jellies. It is often cultivated in gardens and homewards. A type bearing comparatively larger fruits than the wild plant is known in cultivation. Flowers usually appear in the hot season and fruits ripen during the following winter.

Botanical name of Amlaki is Emblica officinalis. The fruits are used in the preparation of writing inks and hair dyes. The dried fruit is detergent and is used as shampoo for the head. The leaves and fruits are used as fodder for cattle. The leaves contain a brownish yellow colouring matter. The wood is red, hard and close-grained; it is liable to split. It is used for agricultural implements, poles and inferior building and furniture work. It is durable under water and is suited for well-work. Per 100gms. edible amlaki contain vitamin C 463mg. It is the highest record compared to other fruits and vegetables. Other nutrition values are: moisture, 91.4; mineral matter, 0.7; fibre, 3.4; calorie, 96 (energy); protein, 0.9; fat, 0.1; carbohydrate, 6.9g.; calcium, 34; iron, 1.2; vitamin B-1, 0.02; vitamin B-2, 0.08, and vitamin C 463 mg./100gms. This fruit is called the king of vitamin C. The fruit juice contains nearly 20 times as much vitamin C as orange juice and a single fruit is equal in antiscorbutic value to one or two oranges. A tannin containing gallic acid, ellagic acid and glucose in its molecule and naturally present in the fruit, prevents or retards the oxidation of the vitamin and renders the fruit a valuable antiscorbutic in the fresh as well as in the dry condition (Food Processes and Analysis, Mohanullad Yunus, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, 50; Wealth of India, Raw Materials, Emblica, 169)

Medicinal Properties: The fruit is acrid, sour, bitter sweetish; cooling, alexiteric, carminative, alterative, laxative, tonic, antipyretic; useful in burning sensations, vomiting, biliousness, urinary discharges, thirst, leprosy, constipation, inflammations, erysipelas, piles, anaemia, strangury; used in biliousness, "kapha", thirst, sweats, anuria, poisoning, "tridosha", ophthalmia and incipient blindness. The leaf is used in ophthalmia and incipient blindness. The seed is acrid, sweet; aphrodisiac, antipyretic; useful in biliousness, asthma, bronchitis, leucorrhoea, vomiting, "vata" (Ayurveda). The flowers are cooling and aperient. The fruit is acrid, sour, cooling; astringent, tonic, laxative, improves the appetite; useful in diseases of the heart, liver complaint, cold in the nose, thirst, piles, biliousness, eyetroubles; stops nasal haemorrhage; purifies the humours of the body.

The root, the bark, and the ripe fruit are astringent. The flowers are refrigerant and aperient.

The unripe fruit is cooling, diuretic, and laxative. The exudation from the incisions on the fruit is used as an external application in inflammation of the eye. In the Konkan, the juice of the fresh bark with honey and turmeric is given in gonorrhoea. The leaves are, in Barada, used as all infusion with fenugreek seeds in cases of chronic dysentery, and are also considered a bitter tonic. In the same locality, the milky juice is considered a good application to offensive sores. it Cambodia, the leaves are used in the preparation of antithermic lotions and baths. and the decoction of the roots is given in myalgia following upon some febrile condition. Every part of the plant is equally useless in the antidotal treatment of snake-bite and scorpion sting (Indian Medicinal Plants, Kirt. & Basu, ill, 2221,2222)

Amlaki is acrid, cooling, refrigerant, diuretic and laxative. The raw fruit is eaten as an aperient Dried fruit is useful in haemorrhage, diarrhoea and dysentery. In combination with iron, it is used as a remedy for anaemia, jaundice and dyspepsia. A fermented liquor prepared from the fruit is used in jaundice. dyspepsia, and cough. Acute bacillary dysentery may be arrested by drinking a sherbet of amlaki with lemon juice. Triphala, consisting of equal parts of powdered emblic myrobalan, chebullic myrobalan (Terminalia chebula Retz, Haritaki) and belleric myrobalan (T. bellerica Roxb. Bahera) is used as a laxative and in headache. biliousness, dyspepsia, constipation, piles, enlarged liver and ascites. The exudation from incisions on the fruit is used as an external application for inflammation of the eye. The flowers are cooling, refrigerant and aperient. The root and bark are astringent. The seeds are used in the treatment of asthma, bronchitis and biliousness. They contain a fixed oil phosphatides and a small quantity of essential oil with a characteristic odour. This oil is reported to have the property of property of hair growth (Wealth of India, Raw Materials, Emblica, 169,170).

The juice of the fresh fruit is considered cooling, refrigerant, diuretic and laxative, and enters into many prescriptions for dyspepsia. It is also ordered to be given with honey as a diuretic. The dried fruit is said to be astringent and useful in haemorrhage and together with iron is considered a valuable remedy in anaemia, jaundice and dyspepsia. A paste of the fruit is also described as a useful external application over the public region in irritability of the bladder. The exudation from incisions made in the fruit, while on the tree, is believed to be a useful external application in recent inflammation of the conjunction. A fermented liquor prepared from the fruit s used in jaundice, dyspepsia, cough (UC. Dutt, Mat Med Hind). Dymock states that Muhammadan physicians esteem it equally with the Hindu Materia Medica. They describe it as, tringent, refrigerant. cardiacal, and a purifier of the humours of the body. It is much prescribed ! them in "fluxes" and is also applied externally an account of its cooling and astringent properties.

The fresh fruit is used as a purgative, while a sherbet prepared from it, sweetened with honey or sugar is a favourite cooling drink, and is believed to be diuretic. Campbell states that it is when boiled till it becomes like oil, applied as a remedy for khasra a skin disease. The dried is much prescribed as an astringent in diarrhoea and dysentery. Ainslie writes, 'The died yellow flowers of this species have an odom much resembling that of lemon-peel and supposed, by the Vitians, to have virtues of a cooling and asperient nature; they are prescribed, in conjunction with other articles in the form of an electuary, in the quantity of about a tea-spoonfull twice daily. The bark partakes of the astringency of the fruit, and is similarly employed. Dymock states that the juice of the fresh bark is given with honey and turmeric as a for gonorrhoea. The root by decoction and evaporation. yields an astringent extract equal to catechu both for medicinal purposes and in the arts. The leaves are used as an infusion with fenugreek seeds in cases of chronic dysentery, and are also considered a bitter tonic.

"Amlaki is an excellent astringent for genito-urinary discharges when used with beleric myrobalans in decoction; laxative when combined with chebulic myrobalans" (Surgeon-Major R.D. Cook, Cali )."The fresh fruit preserved as a confection is used for bilious affections" (Surgeon-Major Robb, Ahmedabad) "In some cases of disturbed cerebral circulation, attended by a buming sensation at the crown of the head, a tendency to headache, confusion of thoughts, and probably loss of hair, I have used, with great success, mustered oil in which amlaki fruit had been allowed to remain for some time. The oil so prepared was applied on the head; in a few days the burning sensation diminished, the mental faculties became relieved of confusion, and in two cases the hair grew very rapidly on the part. (Civil Surgeon D. Basu, Faridpur, Bengal)

"Infusion of seeds used in eye diseases" (Assistant Surgeon Nehal Sing, Saharunpur) "Infusion of amlaki in cooling and astringent and a useful adjunct to other medicines in diarrhoea and dysentery: also found efficacious in haematurea. It is an ingredient of triphala, that is the infusion of three myrobalans-emblic, chebulic, and beleric. This infusion has found to be a cooling, stomachic and general tonic to the digestive system" (Assistant Surgeon S.C. Bhattachargi, Chanda). The pulp is used for the same purposes as liquorice, viz., for cough (Surgeon-Major Lionel Beech, cocanadu). It is one of the ingredients of triphala (three fruits) commonly used by the people as stomachic and laxative primarily; and astringent finally. The other two are haritaki and bahera" (Assistant Surgeon Bhagwan Dass Rawalpindi). A decoction of the fruit is useful in chronic dysentery and diarrhoea" (Civil Surgeon S.M. Shircore, Murshedabad). "It is a stimulating expectorant in chronic bronchitis. It is also antibilious. An infusion of the roots is given to allay thirst" (Surgeon-Major D.R. Thomson, M.D., CIE Madras). The dried fruits, immersed in water in a new eatihen vessel a whole night, yield a decoction which is used as a collyrium in ophthalmia (Dictionary of the Economic Products of India)