Phyllanthus emblica

For other plants called gooseberry, see List of plants A human pilot study demonstrated a reduction of
known as gooseberry.
blood cholesterol levels in both normal and hypercholesterolemic men with treatment.[11] Another recent study
Phyllanthus emblica, also known as emblic,[1][3] emblic with alloxan-induced diabetic rats given an aqueous amla
fruit extract has shown signicant decrease of the blood
myrobalan,[1] myrobalan,[3] Indian gooseberry,[1][3]
[3]
[3]
Malacca tree, or amla from Sanskrit amalika, is a glucose, as well as triglyceridemic levels and an improvement of the liver function caused by a normalizadeciduous tree of the family Phyllanthaceae. It is known
tion of the liver-specic enzyme alanine transaminase
for its edible fruit of the same name.
activity.[12]

Plant morphology and harvest- 3 Chemical research

ing
Although these fruits are reputed to contain high
amounts of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), 445 mg/100g,[13]
the specic contents are disputed, and the overall
antioxidant strength of amla may derive instead from
its high density of ellagitannins[14] such as emblicanin
A (37%), emblicanin B (33%), punigluconin (12%)
and pedunculagin (14%).[15] It also contains punicafolin
and phyllanemblinin A, phyllanemblin other polyphenols:
avonoids, kaempferol, ellagic acid and gallic acid.[14][16]

The tree is small to medium in size, reaching 8 to 18 m

in height, with a crooked trunk and spreading branches.
The branchlets are glabrous or nely pubescent, 1020
cm long, usually deciduous; the leaves are simple, subsessile and closely set along branchlets, light green, resembling pinnate leaves. The owers are greenish-yellow.
The fruit is nearly spherical, light greenish yellow, quite
smooth and hard on appearance, with six vertical stripes
or furrows.
Ripening in autumn, the berries are harvested by hand
after climbing to upper branches bearing the fruits. The
taste of Indian gooseberry is sour, bitter and astringent,
and it is quite brous. In India, it is common to eat gooseberries steeped in salt water and turmeric to make the sour
fruits palatable.

Medical research

Indian gooseberry has undergone preliminary research,

demonstrating in vitro antiviral and antimicrobial
properties.[4] There is preliminary evidence in vitro that
its extracts induce apoptosis and modify gene expression
in osteoclasts involved in rheumatoid arthritis and
osteoporosis.[5] It may prove to have potential activity
against some cancers.[6] One recent animal study found Fruit with young leaves and ower buds.
treatment with E. ofcinalis reduced severity of acute
pancreatitis (induced by L-arginine in rats). It also promoted the spontaneous repair and regeneration process
4 Cultural and religious
of the pancreas occurring after an acute attack.[7]

signi-

cance
Experimental preparations of leaves, bark or fruit have
shown potential ecacy against laboratory models of disease, such as for inammation, cancer, age-related renal The tree is considered sacred by Hindus as the Vishnu
disease, and diabetes.[8][9][10]
is believed to dwell here. The tree is worshipped on
1

5 TRADITIONAL USES OF AMLAKI

Amalaka Ekadashi.
In other Hindu myths, Amla is said to have originated
from the drops of Amrit which spilled on earth accidentally, due to the ght of Gods and Demons after
ksheera sagar manthan. And hence also this religious belief makes claims that it almost cures every disease and is
also good in extending the longevity of life.
In the Sanskrit Buddhist tradition half an amalaka fruit
was the nal gift to the Buddhist sangha by the great
Indian emperor Ashoka. This is illustrated in the
Ashokavadana in the following verses:

pitta due to its cooling energy.[18] It also balances both

Pitta and vata by virtue of its sweet taste. The kapha is
balanced primarily due to its drying action. It may be
used as a rasayana (rejuvenative) to promote longevity,
and traditionally to enhance digestion (dipanapachana),
treat constipation (anuloma), reduce fever (jvaraghna),
purify the blood (raktaprasadana), reduce cough (kasahara), alleviate asthma (svasahara), strengthen the heart
(hrdaya), benet the eyes (chakshushya), stimulate hair
growth (romasanjana), enliven the body (jivaniya), and
enhance intellect (medhya).[18][19]

In Ayurvedic polyherbal formulations, Indian gooseberry is a common constituent, and most notably is
the primary ingredient in an ancient herbal rasayana
called Chyawanprash.[14] This formula, which contains
43 herbal ingredients as well as claried butter, sesame
oil, sugar cane juice, and honey, was rst mentioned
in the Charaka Samhita as a premier rejuvenative
[20][21]
According to Hindu tradition, Adi Shankara of Ker- compound.
ala composed and recited the Kanakadhara stotram in
praise of Mahalakshmi to make a poor Brahmin lady get
wealth, in return for a single amla presented to her as
bhiksha on an auspicious dwadashi day. Contemporary
poet/philosopher Ravi Teja Yelamanchili wrote a book
titled Amalaki. The book is based on Advaita Vedanta
of Sri Adi Shankaracharya.
A great donor, the lord of men, the eminent Maurya
Ashoka, has gone from being lord of Jambudvipa [India] to being lord of half a myrobalan. (Strong, 1983, p.
99)[17] This deed became so famous that a stupa was created to mark the place of the event in modern day Patna
and was known as the Amalaka stupa.

According to a Tamil legend, Avvaiyar (Tamil:

), a female poet, ethicist and political
activist of the Sangam period was gifted with one amla
by King Athiyaman to give her long life.
In Theravada Buddhism, this plant is said to have used as
the tree for achieved enlightenment, or Bodhi by twenty
rst Lord Buddha called Pussa - ".

5
5.1

Traditional uses of amlaki

Medicinal use

In traditional Indian medicine, dried and fresh fruits of

the plant are used. All parts of the plant are used
in various Ayurvedic/Unani medicine (Jawarish amla)
herbal preparations, including the fruit, seed, leaves, root,
bark and owers.[18] According to Ayurveda, amla fruit
is sour (amla) and astringent (kashaya) in taste (rasa),
with sweet (madhura), bitter (tikta) and pungent (katu)
secondary tastes (anurasas).[18] Its qualities (gunas) are A jar of South Indian Andhra amla pickle
light (laghu) and dry (ruksha), the postdigestive eect
(vipaka) is sweet (madhura) and its energy (virya) is cooling (shita).[19]
In Chinese traditional therapy, this fruit is called yuganzi
), which is used to cure throat inammation.
According to Ayurveda, amla balances all three doshas. (
While amla is unusual in that it contains ve out of
the six tastes recognized by Ayurveda, it is most important to recognize the eects of the virya, or potency, and vipaka, or post-digestive eect. Considered in this light, amla is particularly helpful in reducing

Emblica ocinalis tea may ameliorate diabetic neuropathy due to aldose reductase inhibition.[22] In rats it significantly reduced blood glucose, food intake, water intake
and urine output in diabetic rats compared with the non
diabetic control group.[23]

5.2

Culinary use

The Maharashtra state is one of the largest producers and

suppliers of Indian Gooseberries. In this region the fruit
is commonly pickled with salt, oil, and spices. The amla
fruit is eaten raw or cooked into various dishes. In Andhra
Pradesh, tender varieties are used to prepare dal (a lentil
preparation), and amle ka murabbah, a sweet dish indigenous to the northern part of India made by soaking the
berries in sugar syrup until they are candied. It is traditionally consumed after meals.

5.3

Other uses

Popularly used in inks, shampoos and hair oils, the high

tannin content of Indian gooseberry fruit serves as a
mordant for xing dyes in fabrics.[18] Amla shampoos and
hair oil are traditionally believed to nourish the hair and
scalp and prevent premature grey hair.

Also found are the variants in spelling aola, ammalaki,

aamvala, aawallaa, dharty, nillika, and nellikya.

7 Gallery
New leaves.
Flowering twigs.
Tree trunk.
Bark of the Indian goosebery.

8 See also
Emblicanin (antioxidant)
Triphala, an Ayurvedic mixture containing Amla

Vernacular names

Names for this plant in various languages include:

amalika () in Sanskrit
Dhatric () in Sanskrit, Maithili
ml () in Hindi
mla () in Gujarati
aavnlaa (amla or awla) in Urdu
va () (or awla) in Marathi
Bettada nellikaayi
(
) in
Kannada
vo () in Konkani
Aula () in Punjabi
amloki () in Bengali
amal () in Nepali
ambare () in Garo language
amlakhi in Assamese
anlaa () in Oriya
Suaklu in Paite
sunhlu in Mizo
nelli () in Malayalam
heikru in Manipuri
hallaj or ihllaj ( ) in Arabic
sohmylleng in Khasi
rasi usiri (
) (or rasi usirikai ) in Telugu
nellikkai (/
/
) nellikkaai or nellikaayi in Tamil, Kannada and Tulu
nelli () in Sinhala
mak kham bom in Lao
ma kham pom () in Thai
anmole (
) in Chinese
Kantout Prei (
) in Khmer
skyu ru ra (
) in Tibetan
melaka in Malay, A state in Malaysia, Malacca was
named after this tree.
zee phyu thee (
) in Myanmar

9 References
[1] Phyllanthus emblica information from NPGS/GRIN.
US Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
[2] The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species.
Retrieved 14 July 2014.
[3] Lim, T.K. (2012). "Phyllanthus emblica". Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants. Springer Netherlands. pp.
258296.
[4] Saeed S, Tariq P (Jan 2007). Antibacterial activities of
Emblica ocinalis and Coriandrum sativum against Gram
negative urinary pathogens. Pak J Pharm Sci 20 (1): 32
5. PMID 17337425.
[5] Penolazzi, L.; Lampronti, I.; Borgatti, M.; Khan, M.;
Zennaro, M.; Piva, R.; Gambari, R. (2008). Induction
of apoptosis of human primary osteoclasts treated with
extracts from the medicinal plant Emblica ocinalis.
BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 8: 59.
doi:10.1186/1472-6882-8-59. PMC 2587459. PMID
18973662.
[6] Ngamkitidechakul, C.; Jaijoy, K.; Hansakul, P.; Soonthornchareonnon, N.; Sireeratawong, S. (2010). Antitumour eects of phyllanthus emblica L.: Induction
of cancer cell apoptosis and Inhibition of in vivo tumour promotion and in vitro invasion of human cancer cells. Phytotherapy Research 24 (9): 14051413.
doi:10.1002/ptr.3127. PMID 20812284.
[7] Sidhu, S.; Pandhi, P.; Malhotra, S.; Vaiphei, K.;
Khanduja, K. L. (2011). Benecial Eects ofEmblica ocinalisinl-Arginine-Induced Acute Pancreatitis in
Rats. Journal of Medicinal Food 14 (12): 147155.
doi:10.1089/jmf.2010.1108. PMID 21138365.

[8] Ganju L, Karan D, Chanda S, Srivastava KK, Sawhney

RC, Selvamurthy W (Sep 2003). Immunomodulatory effects of agents of plant origin. Biomed Pharmacother.
57 (7): 296300. doi:10.1016/S0753-3322(03)00095-7.
PMID 14499177.
[9] Yokozawa T, Kim HY, Kim HJ, et al. (Sep 2007). Amla
(Emblica ocinalis Gaertn.) attenuates age-related renal dysfunction by oxidative stress. J Agric Food Chem.
55 (19): 774452. doi:10.1021/jf072105s. PMID
17715896.
[10] Rao TP, Sakaguchi N, Juneja LR, Wada E, Yokozawa
T (2005).
Amla (Emblica ocinalis Gaertn.)
extracts reduce oxidative stress in streptozotocininduced diabetic rats. J Med Food 8 (3): 3628.
doi:10.1089/jmf.2005.8.362. PMID 16176148.
[11] Jacob A, Pandey M, Kapoor S, Saroja R (Nov 1988). Effect of the Indian gooseberry (amla) on serum cholesterol
levels in men aged 35-55 years. Eur J Clin Nutr 42 (11):
93944. PMID 3250870.
[12] Qureshi SA, Asad W, Sultana V (Jan 2009). The
Eect of Phyllantus emblica Linn on Type II Diabetes, Triglycerides and Liver Specic Enzyme.
Pakistan Journal of Nutrition.
8 (2): 125128.
doi:10.3923/pjn.2009.125.128.
[13] Tarwadi K, Agte V (Aug 2007). Antioxidant and micronutrient potential of common fruits available in the Indian subcontinent. Int J Food Sci Nutr 58 (5): 3419.
doi:10.1080/09637480701243905. PMID 17558726.
[14] Dharmananda S. Emblic Myrobalans: Amla, Institute of
Traditional Medicine
[15] Bhattacharya, A.; Chatterjee, A.; Ghosal, S.; Bhattacharya, S. K. (1999). Antioxidant activity of active
tannoid principles of Emblica ocinalis (amla)". Indian
journal of experimental biology 37 (7): 676680. PMID
10522157.
[16] Habib-ur-Rehman, Yasin KA, Choudhary MA, et al. (Jul
2007). Studies on the chemical constituents of Phyllanthus emblica. Nat. Prod. Res. 21 (9): 77581.
doi:10.1080/14786410601124664. PMID 17763100.
[17] Strong, J. S. (1983) The Legend of King Ashoka, New
York: Princeton University Press
[18] Caldecott T. Amalaki
[19] National R&D Facility for Rasayana - Amalaki
[20] Samhita C. Ed., translation by the Shree Gulabkunverba
Society, Volume 4. Chikitsa Sthana, Jamnagar, India:
1949
[21] Indian Ministry of Health and Family Planning. The
Ayurvedic Formulary of India. Part I. 1st ed. Delhi, 1978.
[22] Puppala, M; Ponder, J; Suryanarayana, P; Reddy, GB;
Petrash, JM; LaBarbera, DV (2012). The isolation and
characterization of -glucogallin as a novel aldose reductase inhibitor from Emblica ocinalis.. PLoS One 7 (4).
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031399.

10 FURTHER READING

[23] Tiwari, V.; Kuhad, A.; Chopra, K. (2011). Emblica ofcinalis Corrects Functional, Biochemical and Molecular
Decits in Experimental Diabetic Neuropathy by Targeting the Oxido-nitrosative Stress Mediated Inammatory
Cascade. Phytotherapy Research 25 (10): 15271536.
doi:10.1002/ptr.3440. PMID 21394805.

10 Further reading
Winston, David; Maimes, Steven (2007). Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress Relief.
Healing Arts Press. ISBN 1-59477-158-8. Contains
a detailed monograph on Emblica ocinalis (Amla;
Indian gooseberry; Amalaki) as well as a discussion
of health benets.
Puri, Harsharnjit Singh (2002). Amalaki (Phyllanthus emblica)". Rasayana: Ayurvedic Herbs for
Longevity and Rejuvenation. Traditional Herbal
Medicines for Modern Times, Vol. 2. Boca Raton:
CRC. pp. 2242. ISBN 0-415-28489-9.
Caldecott, Todd (2006). Ayurveda: The Divine Science of Life. Elsevier/Mosby. ISBN
0-7234-3410-7. Contains a detailed monograph
on Phyllanthus emblica (Amla; Indian gooseberry;
Amalaki) as well as a discussion of health benets and usage in clinical practice. Available online
at http://www.toddcaldecott.com/index.php/herbs/
learning-herbs/397-amalaki

11
11.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Phyllanthus emblica Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllanthus%20emblica?oldid=635361432 Contributors: Shyamal, Ronz, Bogdangiusca, Lumos3, Sander123, Smallweed, Canterbury Tail, DanielCD, Rich Farmbrough, Zscout370, Szquirrel, Kwamikagami, Circeus,
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