Description

Chebulic Myrobalan is a flowering deciduous tree called in English the Myrobalan or sometimes the Chebulic Myrobalan. It is native to the Indian subcontinent and the adjacent areas such as Pakistan, Nepal and the south-west of China stretching as far south as Kerala or even Sri Lanka where is called Aralu. This tree yields smallish, ribbed and nut-like fruits which are picked up when still green and then pickled, boiled with a little added sugar in their own syrup or used in preserves or concotions. The seed of the fruit, which has an eliptical shape, is an abrasive pit enveloped by a fleshy and firm pulp. Chebulic Myrobalan can reach heights of 20 meters.

Characteristics:

Deciduous trees, to 25 m high, bark 5-6 mm thick, surface dark brown to black, fissures shallow, vertical, exfoliating in thick scales; blaze yellowish-brown; young shoots densely pubescent; branchlets brownish or greyish, glabrous. Leaves simple, opposite to alternate, exstipulate; petiole 12-25 mm long, stout, grooved above, pubescent, 2 sessile glands at the top; lamina 9.5-28 x 4-13 cm, ovate, elliptic, obovate or elliptic-obovate, base round, obtuse, oblique or subtruncate, apex acute, acuminate, obtuse or apiculate, margin entire, glabrous above tawny villous beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 6-12 pairs, pinnate, ascending, prominent, arched towards the margin, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, greenish-white, 5-6 mm across, in terminal and axillary spikes with offensive smell; bracts 2-3 mm long; calyx tube 1.5-2.5 × 0.8-1 mm, villous, constricted above the ovary, lobes 5, creamy, triangular, 1.5 mm; petals 0; stamens 10 in 2 rows; filaments 4-6 mm; disc 5-lobed, villous; ovary 2 mm long, inferior, densely villous, 1-celled; style 5 mm, subulate; stigma terminal. Fruit a drupe 3-4 x 2-2.5 cm, obovoid, woody, obscurely 5 angled, glabrous, greenish-yellow; seed one.

Medicinal Uses:

Chebulic Myrobalan is highly regarded as the 'king of medicines' in the Ayurvedic Medicine. It is reputed to cure blindness and it is believed to inhibit the growth of the malignant tumours. It is allegedly also a powerful detox agent.