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Indian Gooseberry 

Description: amla   Description: amla v

BOTANICAL NAME:

  • Emblica officinalis

FAMILY:

  • Euphorbiaceae

SYNONYM(S):

  • Phyllan thus emblica linn

URDU NAME:

  • Anwala

REGIONAL NAME:

  • Bengali: Amlaki, Amla
  • Persian: Amla, Amuleh
  • Hindi: Amla. Anola
  • Pashto: Amlay
  • Sanskrit: Adiphala, Dhatriphala, Amalaka
  • Sindhi: Anwara
  • Arabic: Amlaj
  • Punjabi: Amla, Ambla
  • Kashmeri: Anola

UNANI/TIBBI NAME:

  • Amlaj, Amla

ENGLISH NAME:

  • Amblic myrobalan, Andian Gooseberry

HABITAT:

  • It is wild in the foothills from Hazara and Rawalpindi Districts Eastward, ascending to 4500ft. also cultivated in the Plains.

DESCRIPTION:

  • It is small or medium sized deciduous tree
  • Bark smooth greenish grey
  • Leaves light green feathery with small, narrowly oblong,  linear pinnate leaflets
  • The flowers are greenish yellow
  • The fruit 1.3 cm in diameter is globose, fleshy and obscurely 6-lobed; is green when tender turning to light yellow or brick- red on ripening.
  • Seeds are trigonous

PART USED:

  • Fruit

TASTE:

  • Acrid and sour

TEMPERAMENT:

  • Cold 2°, dry 3°

PERIOD OF OCCURRENCE:

  • Flowers appear during summer from March to May whereas the fruits ripen in winter

PROCEDURE & TIME OF COLLECTION:

  • The fruits are picked from October to April, dried and stored

CONSTITUENTS:

  • Vitamin c
  • Tannins,
  • Protein
  • Fat
  • Minerals, Ca2+, P, Fe2+, Nicotinic Acid

SUBSTITUTES:

  • Choti har/chebulic myrobalan (terminalia chebula)

ACTIONS AND USES IN UNANI SYSTEM OF MEDICINE:

Pharmacological action:

  • Refrigerant
  • Diuretic
  • Laxative
  • Aperients
  • astringent

Therapeutic uses:

  • Fruits are useful in chronic dirrhoea, dysentery, hemorrhage, anemia, jaundice, dyspepsia. Is used as a heart and brain tonic

DOSES:

  • 3-10 g

CORRECTIVES:

  • Shed/Honey
  • Rhoghan-e-badam/almond oil (purunus amygdalus)

IMPORTANT UNANI FORMULATIONS:

  • Sharbat amla
  • Muraba amla
  • Jawarash anila
  • Jawarash shahi
  • Atraiphal
  • Majun mundi
  • Majun kalan

ASTROLOGY:

  • Saturn