Terminalia arjuna Identity & Plant Part
The botanical entity is Terminalia arjuna (Roxb.) Wight & Arn., a large evergreen tree of the Combretaceae family that grows along rivers and streams in India and neighboring countries. The part used is the bark. Leaves, fruit, heartwood and roots are not part of this ingredient.
The bark is the traditional drug of Ayurveda, and it is also the material that holds the characteristic constituents: triterpenoids such as arjunic acid, arjunolic acid and arjungenin, together with ellagitannins and flavonoids. Because the bark carries a notable amount of tannin, it is astringent and gives deeply colored water extracts.
Other Terminalia species are traded as well, notably Terminalia chebula, T. bellirica and T. tomentosa, each from a different tree and a different part, so the Latin name and the bark identify this ingredient. Arjuna bark is also sold as cut and sifted bark for decoctions, a coarse herbal cut that wets and settles differently from a dispersible arjuna extract.












