Terminalia arjuna, Olibanum, Frankincense, Burseraceae, kafa, pitta and vayu, cardiotonic, diuretic, antinfective agent

Terminalia arjuna

	English name: Olibanum, Frankincense

	Family: Burseraceae

	Part used: Bark

Traditional uses ^1-6:

The plant has been used in ayurvedic system of medicine for derangement of all the three humours i.e., kafa, pitta and vayu, all sorts of conditions of cardiac failure, dropsy. Also used as cardiotonic, diuretic and antinfective agent.

Phytochemistry^7-11:

Terminalia’s active constituents include tannins, triterpenoid saponins (arjunic acid, arjunolic acid, arjungenin, arjunglycosides), flavonoids (arjunone,arjunolone, luteolin), gallic acid, ellagic acid, oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPCs), phytosterols, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and copper.

Pharmacology⁴:

T.arjuna has found to show hypercholesterolaemic^5-7, hypotensive⁸, myocardial depressant property9, relaxant effect on norepinephrine contracted rat aorta¹⁰, protective effect on heart under oxidative stress during ischaemic- repurfusion injury¹¹, antifertility activity¹², antifungal activity¹³, antivira^l14, antiplague formation¹⁵, anticancer¹⁶, wound healing activity¹⁷, antimutagenic activity^18-21, gastroprotective and antiulcer activities^22,23.
In clinical studies it has demonstrated antianginal activity^24,25, ameliorative effect on hypertension and heart failure^26,27.

Indications: Smokers health, Heart health, Antioxidant.

References:


1.	Nadkarni AK: Terminalia arjuna. In: Indian Materia Medica Volume I. Edited by: Nadkarni AK.
	Mumbai, India, Popular Prakashan (Pvt) Ltd; 1976: pp 1198-1202.
2.	Kirtikar KR and Basu BD: Terminalia arjuna. In: Indian Medicinal Plants Volume II. IIth edition.
	Edited by: Kirtikar KR, Basu BD. Allahabad, India, Lalit Mohan Basu Publications; 1935: pp 1023-1028.
3.	Mukerji B: Arjuna. In: The Indian Pharmaceutical Codex Volume I.Edited by: Mukerji B. New Delhi,
4.	India, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research; 1953: pp 23-24.
5.	Monograph: Terminalia arjuna. 1999. Alternative Med Review. 4(6): pp 436-437.
6.	Tiwari AK et al., Int J Crud Drug Res. 1990: 28: pp 43-47.
7.	Pathak SR et al., Indian Drugs. 1990: 27: pp 221-227.
8.	Shaila HP et al., Int J Pharmacog. 1997: 35: pp 126-129.
9.	Singh N et al., Planta Med. 1982: 45: pp 102-104.
10.	Srivastava RD et al., Indian Drugs: 1992: 29: pp 144-149.
11.	Tripathi YB et al., Phytother Res. 1993: 7: pp 320-322.
12.	Gauthaman K et al., J Ethnopharmacol. 2001: 75: pp 197-201.
13.	Prakash AO et al., Indian J Exp Biol. 1976: 14: pp 623-626.
14.	Dutta BK et al., Geobios. 1999: 26: pp 43-45.
15.	Kusumoto IT et al., Phytother Res. 1995: 9(3): pp 180.
16.	Shaila HP et al., Fitotherapia. 1997: 68: pp 405-409.
17.	Avinash N et al., Dev. Bio-Animal. 2000: 36: 544-547.
18.	Chaudhari M et al., Phytother Res. 2006: 20(9): pp 799-805.
19.	Jain AK et al., Curr Sci. 1987: 56: pp 1266-1269.
20.	Kaur S et al., Indian J Exp Biol. 1997:35: pp 478-482.
21.	Kaur K et al., J Env Pathol Toxicol Oncol. 2002: 21: pp 45-56.
22.	Pasquini R et al., J Env Pathol Toxicol Oncol. 2002: 21: pp 33-44.
23.	Devi RS et al., Chem Biol Interact. 2007: Apr 5; 167(1): pp 71-83.
24.	Devi RS et al., Phytother Res. 2007 Aug;21(8): pp 762-7.
25.	Dwivedi S et al., Alternative Med. 1989: 3: pp 115-122.
26.	Bharani A et al., Indian Heart J. 2002: 54: pp 170-175.
27.	Verma SK et al., J Res Educ Indian Med. 1988: 7: pp 31-36.
28.	Bharani A et al., Int J Cardiol. 1995: 49: pp 191-199.

DOC NO.

NR/QCD/SPC/066

ISSUE DATE

02-04-2007

REVISION NO.

ANALYTICAL SPECIFICATION

NUMBER OF PAGES

TITLE : TERMINALIA ARJUNA EXTRACT (³ 25% TOTAL TANNINS)

Plant Part	:	Bark
Fresh/Dry	:	Dry

Sl. No.	Tests	Limits	Protocol
1.	Description	Light reddish brown to Brown powder with characteristic odour
2.	Identification	To pass the test	By TLC
3.	Physico-chemical analysis	< 7.0	As per USP <921> Method III
	Loss on drying (%w/w)	< 7.0	As per USP <921> Method III
	Ash content (%w/w)	< 15.0	As per USP<561>
	pH of 5% w/v solution.	3.0 - 5.5	As per USP<791>
4.	Particle Size	0.20 - 0.60	As per USP <616> Method - I
	Bulk Density (g/cc)	0.20 - 0.60
	Tapped bulk density (g/cc)	0.20 - 0.80
	Material passing through 30# BS/35 ASTM (%w/w)	> 99.0	As per USP <786> Particle Size distribution.
5.	Heavy metal analysis		AAS / ICP -ES
	Lead	< 10 ppm
	Arsenic	< 2 ppm
	Cadmium	< 1 ppm
	Mercury	< 0.1 ppm
6.	Microbiological analysis		As per WHO/PHARMA/92.559/Rev.1 Pg.49-52 / As per USP <61> & <62>
	As per FIP Guidelines
	Total Viable Aerobic Count	< 10⁴cfu g^-1
	Total Enterobacteriaceae	< 10²org g^-1
	Total Fungal Count	< 10²fs g^-1
7.	Test for Specific Pathogen
	As per FIP Guidelines
	E.coli (1g)	Absent
	Salmonella typhi (10g)	Absent
	S.aureus (1g)	Absent
8.	Mycotoxin analysis	< 5 ppb	As per USP Test for Aflatoxins
8.	Aflatoxins (B₁ + B₂ + G₁ + G₂)	< 5 ppb	As per USP Test for Aflatoxins
9.	Pesticide residue analysis	To comply with USP	As per AOAC / USP
	As per USP & BP Limits
	Organochlorine Pesticides
	Organophosphorus Pesticides
	Synthetic pyrethroids
10.	Phytochemical analysis	³ 25.0	By Spectrophotometry
10.	Total tannins as tannic acid (%w/w)	³ 25.0	By Spectrophotometry