Botanical name Terminalia arjuna ( Roxb. ) W & A
Family Combretaceae
Common names
Bengali Arjun
English Arjun
Hindi ````````Arjun
Malayalam Arjuna
Sanskrit Arjun
Tamil Vellamatta
Occurrence & Distribution
Common on the banks of rivers , streams, and dry water courses in sub Himalayan tract, Central and South India and West Bengal . Also planted for shade or ornament in avenues or parks
Description
A large tree, 20-25 m high, with often buttressed trunk, smooth grey bark., and drooping branchlets. Leaves subopposite , hard, coriaceous, oblong or elliptic, 10 – 20 cm long. Flowers yellowish- white, borne in shortly panicled spikes. Fruits 2.5- 5 cm long, obovoid-oblong, with 5-7 equal , hard, coriaceous , thick narrow wings, their striations curing much upwards
Flowers in March- June and fruits in September – November
Part used
Fruits, leaves, bark
Chemical constituents
Alicylic and amino acids and polypols. Arachidic stearate, cerasidin, hendriacontane, myristyl oleate, mannitol, b- sitosterol, friedelin, methl oleanolate, ellagic and gallic acids, arjunic acids, arjunone, tannin, arjunetin, baicalein, arjunolone, arjunglucosides 1 & 11, arjunolic acids , saponins, leucocyanidin
Therapeutic uses
Fruits- deobstruent and tonic
Leaves- juice used in earache, externally used as a cover on sores and ulcers
Bark—antidysenteric, antipyretic, astringent, cardiotonic, lithotriptic, styptic and tonic, powder acts as a diuretic in cirrhosis of liver and gives relief in symptomatic hypertension