Ayurveda : Amalaki

Amalaki consists of fresh fruit pulp of emblica officinalis gaertn. (fam. euphorbiaceae); a small or medium sized tree, found in mixed deciduous forests, ascending to 1300 m on hills and cultivated in gardens and homeyards.

Synonyms
sanskrit        : amalaka, amrtaphala, dhatriphala
assamese     : amlaku, amlakhi, amlakhu
bengali         : amla, dhatri
english         : emblic myrobalan
gujrati          : ambala, amala
hindi            : amla, aonla
kannada     : nellikayi
kashmiri     : embali, amli
malayalam  : nellikka
marathi        : anvala, avalkathi
oriya             : anala, ainla
punjabi        : aula, amla
tamil            : nellikkai, nelli
telugu        : usirika
urdu         :  amla, amlaj
Description
a) macroscopic
fruit, globose, 2.5-3.5 cm in diameter, fleshy, smooth with six prominant lines; greenish when tender, changing to light yellowish or pinkish colour when mature, with a few dark specks: taste, sour and astringent followed by delicately sweet taste.

b) microscopic
transverse section of mature fruit shows an epicarp consisting of single layer of epidermis and 2-4 layers of hypodermis; epidermal cell, tabular in shape, covered externally with a thick cuticle and appear in surface view as polygonal; hypodermal cells tangentially elongated, thick-walled, smaller in dimension than epidermal cells; mesocarp forms bulk of fruit, consisting of thin-walled parenchymatous cells with intercellular spaces, peripheral 6-9 layers smaller, ovoid or tangentially elongated while rest of cells larger in size, isodiametric and radially elongated; several collateral fibrovascular bundles scattered throughout mesocarp consisting of xylem and phloem; xylem composed of tracheal elements, fibre tracheids and xylem fibres; tracheal elements show reticulate scalariform and spiral thickenings; xylem fibres elongated with narrow lumen and pointed end; mesocarp contains large aggregates of numerous irregular silica crystals.

Identity, purity and strength
foreign matter                                  not more than 2 per cent
total ash                                              not more than 7 per cent
acid-insoluble ash                          not more than 2 per cent
alcohol-soluble extractive         not less than 40 per cent
(on dried basis)
water-soluble extractive            not less than 50 per cent
moisture content                           not less than 80 per cent
constituents – ascorbic acid and tannins.

properties and action
rasa : madhura, amla, katu, tikta, kasaya
guna : laghu, ruska
virya : Sita
vipaka : madhura
karma : tridosajit, vrsya, rasayana, caksusya
important formulations – cyavanaprasa.
therapeutic uses – raktapitta; amlapitta; prameha; daha
DOSE – 10-20 g of the drug.
5-10 ml of fresh juice.