A Comprehensive Review on a Unani Dynamic Drug: Amla (Emblica officinalis)

Abstract

Traditional system of medicine have been in vogue since ages. Amla is one of the herbal plant used in Unani medicine having very versatile actions.The word “Amla” is derived from an Arabic word ‘ambalji’ and in Persian it is called ‘amlah’. In english is commonly known by the name of Indian gooseberry. It is used as medicinally since centuries. Each and every part of the Amla tree is used medicinally but more commonly its fruit is used. It is mostly found in tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world. All the information on the plant available in Urdu, Persian, Arabic language in classical Unani literature available in different libraries of India from recent to past were searched, for phyto-chemical and pharmacological activities and computerized databases such as Medline, Pubmed, Ovid SP, Google Scholar and Science-direct were searched. In unani classical texts, the temperament of Amlais mentioned as Barid 1°Yabis 2° and its actions are Qabiz, Muqawwie Meda, Muqawwie Shaar. The chemical constituents like amino acids alanine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, lysine and proline are present in major quantity. Several pharmacological studies have been carried out on it like anti-ulcer, immune modulatory, anti-inflammatory, antitussive and gastroprotective etc. It is used both as single as well as in compound formulations as an main ingredient like Jawarish Amla, Jawarishshahi, Anushdaru and Itrifalat. Through this review an attempt has made to reveal the Unani aspect of Amla and describe Unani pharmacological activities in the light of recent experiemental studies.