Indian Gooseberry

          PHYLLANTHUS EMBLICA L.

Family: Euphorbiaceae
Synonyms: Emblica officialis Gaertn.
Bengali/Vernacular Name: Amloki, Amla; Aila (Sylhet)
Tribal Name: Ambari (Garo); Amloti (Chakma); Soi sha (Marma); Sowan Lu (Bawm); Khulu (Murong).
English Name: Emblic Myrobalan, Indian Gooseberry.

Description of the Plant:
A small to medium-sized, deciduous tree. Banchlets feathery with distichous leaves, resembling a pinnate leaf; leaves small, bluntish, 0.6-1.3 cm long. Flowers small, greenish yellow, monoecious, in axillary clusters. Fruit a globose drupe, about 2.5 cm across, obscurely 6-lobed.
Using information:
Fruits are diuretic, refrigerant, carminative, astringent, tonic, stomachic, laxative, antacid and rich in Vitamin C; improves appetite, useful in vomiting and burning urination, diseases of the heart and liver, piles, stops nasal haemorrhage. It promotes children's resistance to cough and cold; used as a hair tonic. Dried fruits are useful in haemorrhoids, diarrhoea, dysentery, anaemia, jaundice and dyspepsia. The fruits are also said to be beneficial in insomnia, skin problems, gall pain, leucorrhoea and tympanites. Sherbet prepared from the fruit along with lemon juice is used for arresting acute bacillary dysentery. Fruits are a valuable component of "Trifala" used in different Ayurvedic preparations.
Flowers are cooling and aperient. Bark is astringent (Yusuf et al. 2009). Ethanolic extract of the leaves possess good antibacterial properties and mild antifungal properties (Anwar et al., 2007 & Begum et al., 2007). Phyllambin isolated from fruit potentiates pharmacological action of adrenaline, has mild depressant action on central nervous system and possesses spasmolytic action (Ghani, 2003). Water extract of the fruit causes moderate relaxation of the isolated guinea-pig ileum, but it does not interact with the activity of Acetylchloline (Chakma et al., 2001).

PHYLLANTHUS EMBLICA L.

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Chemical constituents:
Fruit is a rich natural source of vitamin C. It also contains tannins and colloidal substances, phyllembic acid, lipids, gallic acid, ellagic acid, trigalloylglucose, terchebin, corilagin and emblicol. Phyllembin and mucic acid have been isolated from the fruit pulp. Seeds contain fixed oil, phosphatides, tannins and essential oil. Bark, fruits and leaves are rich in tannin. They also contain lupeol, β-sitosterol and ellagic acid. Bark also contains leucodelphinidin. Seed oil also contains linoleic acid (64.8%), closely resembled linseed oil (Ghani, 2003, Rastogi and Mehrotra, 1990 & 93).
Distribution:
Occurs in the dry forests of Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Cox’s Bazar, Sylhet, Dhaka-Tangail (Sal forest) and Dinajpur; also cultivated elsewhere.