Phytopharmacological overview of Terminalia chebula Retz

Abstract

Phytotherapy is the traditional method used to cure many diseases. Various medicinal plants found in many parts of India are well known for their various medicinal values. The Terminalia chebula Retz. a native plant of Asia is found to have various properties like anti-oxidant and free radical scavenging activity, anti-carcinogenic activity, ant-imutagenic activity, anti-bacterial activity, anti-fungal activity, anti-viral activity, anti-diabetic, renoprotective activity, cardio-protective activity, anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic activity. These properties of T. chebula discussed in this review are mainly due to the presence of various types of phytoconstituents.

Full text

Pharmacogn. J.
A multifaceted peer reviewed journal in the eld of Pharmacognosy and Natural Products
www.phcogrst.com/phcogj
Review Article
Pharmacognosy Journal, Vol 8, Issue 4, Jul-Aug, 2016 307
Phytopharmacological overview of Terminalia chebula Retz.
Agaath Hedina1, Punniya Kotti2, Juveriyah Kausar1, Sivasamy1, Vijaya Anand1*
1Department of Human Genetics and Molecular Biology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.
2Department of Biochemistry, Kanchi Shri Krishna College of Arts and Science, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.
ABSTRACT
Phytotherapy is the traditional method used to cure many diseases. Various
medicinal plants found in many parts of India are well known for their vari-
ous medicinal values. The Terminalia chebula Retz. a native plant of Asia is
found to have various properties like anti-oxidant and free radical scavenging
activity, anti-carcinogenic activity, ant-imutagenic activity, anti-bacterial activity,
anti-fungal activity, anti-viral activity, anti-diabetic, renoprotective activity,
cardio-protective activity, anti-inammatory and anti-arthritic activity. These
properties of T. chebula discussed in this review are mainly due to the pres-
ence of various types of phytoconstituents.
Key words: Terminalia chebula, Anti-oxidant, Phytoconstituents, Free radical,
Anti-fungal, Anti-carcinogenic, Renoprotective, Anti-arthritic, Anti-inammatory.
Corresponding author: Dr. A. Vijaya Anand, Associate Professor and Head,
Department of Human Genetics and Molecular Biology, Bharathiar University,
Coimbatore-641 046, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.
Phone no: +91 9842525830
Email: avamiet@yahoo.com
DOI : 10.5530/pj.2016.4.1
INTRODUCTION
e Siddha and Ayurveda treatments use plants to cure various diseas-
es;1 they are the traditional method adopted in India before 5000 years.
e use of plants in various treatments has drawn attention in recent
years due to their accuracy in treatment and their reduced or absence
of side eects. Treatments involving the use of chemically synthesized
compounds have more severe side eects to patients other than cur-
ing the disease eectively. Terminalia chebula Retz. is one of the many
traditional medicinal trees used to treat many diseased conditions. T.
chebula under the family Combretaceae, a native plant in India and
Southeast Asia, is widely cultivated in Taiwan. Its dried ripe fruit, also
called as medicinal Terminalia fruit, has traditionally been used as a
way to treat various ailments in Asia.2 T. ch e b ula possesses a large num-
ber of dierent types of phytoconstituents which exhibits a number of
medicinal activities. e fruit of the tree provides diverse health benets
and is a traditional medicine for household remedy against various
human ailments over decades.3 T. chebula has been widely used in
Ayurveda, Unani and Homoeopathic medicine and has become an
important part of modern medicine. e presence of the various phyto-
chemicals like polyphenols, terpenes, anthocyanins, avonoids, alka-
loids and glycosides makes them a potent anti-oxidant, anti-fungal, anti-
bacterial, anti-viral agents.
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
T. chebula is a native plant of Asia, found predominantly in Srilanka,
Bangladesh, Egypt, Turkey, Tibet, Pakistan and various parts of India.
is is a deciduous tree that grows up to 30 m in height with a crown
shaped like a broad disk.4 is tree grows at the height of 1500-2000 m.
ey have sub-opposite or alternate leaves elliptic blades of 7-18×4.4-10
cm. ey have veins which are lateral and they occur as 6-12 pairs.
T. ch e bula have monoecious owers with unpleasant smell and are pale
yellow in color. e unripen fruit is green in color and the ripe fruit is
yellowish grey in color with the size of 1-2 inches. May to June is the time
the owers appear and July to December the fruits appear.
ANTI-OXIDANT AND FREE RADICAL
SCAVENGING ACTIVITY
Compounds that can scavenge excessive free radicals in the body
can hinder the process of carcinogenesis. e leaves, bark and fruit of
T. chebula possessed high anti-oxidant activity due to the presence of
phenolics which is responsible for this activity.5 Aqueous form of the
extract of T. chebula inhibited xanthine/xanthine oxidase activity and
was also a scavenger of DPPH radicals.5 e poly-herbal formulation of
T. ch ebu la (Aller-7/ NR-A2) is found to inhibit the hemolysis and makes
the lipopolysaccharide to release nitric oxide in an inhibited form.6
Acetone extract has stronger anti-oxidant activity than alpha-tocopherol
and HPLC analysis with diode array detection indicated the presence of
phenolic compounds such as hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives, hydroxyl
cinnamic acid derivatives, avonol aglycones and their glycosides.7
ANTI-CARCINOGENIC ACTIVITY
A group of researchers have reported the phenolics of T. chebu l a fruit
have inhibitory action on cancer cell growth and found that tannic acid,
ellagic acid and chebulinic were the growth inhibitory phenolics of
T. chebula.8 Ethanol extract of T. chebula fruit inhibited cell proliferation
and induce the death of the cell in a dose dependent manner in many
malignant cell lines including breast cancer cell line of mouse (S115)
and human (MCF-7), human osteosarcoma cell line (HOS-1), a non-tu-
morigenic immortalized human prostate cell line (PNT1A) and human
prostate cancer cell (PC-3).9 Besides, acetone extract of bark and fruit
powder of T. chebula have constituents with promising anti-carcinogenic
activity.9
ANTI-MUTAGENIC ACTIVITY
Anti-mutagenic activity of aqueous extract and hydrolyzable tannins
from T. chebula in Salmonella typhimurium has been well documented.10
e aqueous extract of T. c h ebula inhibits gamma radiation induced
strand breaks formation in plasmid PBR322 DNA.11 e administration
of aqueous extract of T. chebula prior to whole body irradiation of mice
resulted in a reduction of peroxidation of membrane lipids in the mice
liver and a decrease in radiation induced errors to DNA. It also protected
the human lymphocytes from the harmful gamma radiation-induced
damage to DNA exposed in vitro.12 T. chebula showed chemo preventive
eects on toxicity, nickel chloride -induced renal oxidative stress, and
cell proliferation response in male Wistar rat.
ANTI-BACTERIAL ACTIVITY
T. chebula showed anti-bacterial activity against both Gram-positive and
Gram-negative human pathogenic bacteria.13,14 Ethanedioic acid and

Anand et al.: T. cheb u l a
308 Pharmacognosy Journal, Vol 8, Issue 4, Jul-Aug, 2016
ellagic acid isolated from T. Chebula fruit extract had strong anti-bacterial
activity against intestinal bacteria, Clostridium perngens and Esch-
erichia coli.15 It is eective against Helicobactor pyroli by inhibiting the
urease activity, and ubiquitous bacterium which cause stomach cancer,
ulcers and gastritis.14 e methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus au-
reus when treated with the extract of T. cheb u l a showed decreased
growth and activity thereby conrming the anti-bacterial activity. e
ripe seeds of T. chebula also have strong anti-bacterial activity against
S. aureus. e aqueous extract of T. chebula strongly inhibited the growth
of Streptococcus mutants, salivary bacteria.16
ANTI-FUNGAL ACTIVITY
An aqueous extract of T. chebula showed anti-fungal activity against a
number of dermatophytes and yeasts. It’s activity is eective against the
pathogenic yeast Candida albicans and dermatophytes Epidermophyton
occosum, Microsporumgy pseum and Trichophyton rubrum.17 Methanol
extract of T. chebula have anti-candidal activity which acts against
clotrimazole resistant Candida albicans. Anti-fungal activity against
Trichophyton glabrata exhibited by seed extracts.18
ANTI-VIRAL ACTIVITY
T. chebula fruits used for four immunodeciency virus HIV-1 (type 1)
integrase inhibitors, GA (I) and three galloyl glucoses (II-IV). eir
galloyl moiety plays an important role for inhibition of 3’-processing
of HIV-1 integrase of the compounds.19 T. chebula also exhibit retroviral
reverse transcriptase inhibitory activity.20 It protects epithelial cells
against inuenza a virus; supporting its use for aiding in treatment of
acute respiratory infections.21 It also showed the therapeutic activity
against herpes simplex virus both in vitro and in vivo tests.22 ese nd-
ings encouraged a team of Japanese researchers to investigate T. chebula
eect on human cytomegalovirus (CMV). e replication of human
cyto-magalo virus in AIDS is found to be inhibited by the extract of
T. ch ebu la and also in preventing CMV disease.
ANTI-DIABETIC AND RENOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY
In streptozotocin induced diabetic rats T. chebula fruit and seeds showed
dose dependent reduction in blood glucose both in short term and long
term study and also had renoprotective activity. e high blood sugar
level is reduced to normal by using the extract of T. chebula.23,24
CARDIOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY
Pretreatment with the extract of T. chebula was found to ameliorate the
consequence of isoproterenol on the formation of lipid peroxide and
also retained the activities of the diagnostic marker enzymes in iso-
proterenol induced myocardial damage in rats.25 Its pericap has been
reported to have cardioprotective activity which is showed in isolated
frog heart model.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AND ANTI-ARTHRITIC
ACTIVITY
Aqueous extract of dried fruit of T. chebula demonstrated inhibition of
inducible nitric oxide synthesis which shows anti-inammatory activity.26
Chebulagic acid obtained from immature seeds of T. chebula signicantly
suppressed the onset and progression of collagen induced arthritis in
mice.27 Polyherbal formulation (Aller-7) containing T. chebula exhibited
a dose dependent anti-inammatory activity against Freund’s adjuvant
induced arthritis in rats.28
CONCLUSION
Among all the rapidly healing chemical medicines available, a large number
of populations in the whole world are still using plants to cure disease.
e T. cheb u l a with its numerous pharmacological activities found its
rightful place in traditional medicine. More biochemical tests are yet to
be conducted to nd more uses and potential value of T. chebula. is
can lead to a rapid emergence of the use of plant extracts to cure many
diseases without causing any harm to the patient thereby leading to a
healthy environment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
None.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
No funding source and there is no conict of interest.
ABBREVIATION USED
DPPH: 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl; HPLC: High Performance Liq-
uid Chromatography; AIDS: Acquired Immune Deciency Syndrome.
REFERENCES
1. Beusher N, Bodinet C, Neumann-Haefelin D, Marston A, Hostettmann K. Anti-
viral activity of African medicinal plants. J Ethnophar-macol. 1994;42(2):101-9.
2. Hua-yew C, Ta-chan L, Kuo-hua Y, Chien-min Y, Chun-ching L. Anti-oxidant and
Free Radical Scavenging Activities of Terminalia chebula. Boil Pharma Bull.
2003;26(9):1331-5.
3. Khare CP. Indian medicinal plants: An illustrated dictionary. Berlin, Springer-
Verlag. 2007;652-3.
4. Chattopadhyay RR, Bhattacharyya SK. Plant Review Terminalia chebula. Phar-
macognos. Rev. 2007;23:145-50.
5. Naik GH, Priyadarsini KI, Naik DB, Gangabhagirathi R, Mohan H. Studies on the
aqueous extract of Terminalia chebula as a potent anti-oxidant and a probable
radioprotector. Phytomedicine. 2004;11(6):530-8.
6. Mahesh R, Bhuvana S, Begum VM. Effect of Terminalia chebula aqueous
extract on oxidative stress and anti-oxidant status in the liver and kidney of
young and aged rats. Cell Biochem Funct. 2009;27(6):358-63.
7. Chen X, Sun F, Ma L, Wang J, Qin H, Du G. In vitro evaluation on the anti-oxidant
capacity of triethylchebulate, an aglycone from Terminalia chebula Retz. fruit.
Indian J Pharmacol. 2011;43(3):320-3.
8. Saleem M, Hushum P, Harkonen K, Pihlaja. Inhibition of cancer cell growth
by crude extract and phenolics of Terminalia chebula fruit. J Ethnopharmacol.
2002;81(3):327-36.
9. Reddy DB, Reddy TC, Jyotsna G, Sharan S, Priya N, Lakshmipathi V.
Chebulagic acid, a COX-LOX dual inhibitor isolated from the fruits of Terminalia
chebula Retz. induces apoptosis in COLO-205 cell line. J Enthnopharmacol.
2009;124(3):506-12.
10. Grover IS, Bala S. Anti-mutagenic activity of Terminalia chebula (myroblan) in
Salmonella typhimurium. Indian J ExpBiol. 1992;30(4):339-41.
11. Naik GH, Priyadarsini KI, Naik DB, Gangabhagirathi R and Mohan H. Studies on
the aqueous extract of Terminalia chebula as a potent anti-oxidant and a prob-
able radioprotector. Phytomedicine. 2004;11(6):530-8.
12. Gandhi NM, Nayar CKK. Radiation protection by Terminalia chebula some mech-
anistic aspects. Mol Cell Biochem. 2005;277(1-2):43-8.
13. Khan KH, Jain SK. Regular intake of Terminalia chebula can reduce the risk of
getting typhoid fever. Adv Biotech. 2009;8(9):10-5.
14. Malckzadeh F, Ehsanifar H, Shahamat N, Levin M, Colwell RR. Anti-bacterial
activity of black myrobalan (Terminalia chebula Retz.) against Helicobactor pyroli.
Int J Anti-microb Agent. 2001;18(1):85-8.
15. Kim HG, Cho JH, Jeong EY, Lim JH, Lee SH, Lee HS. Growth inhibitory activity
of active component from Terminalia chebula fruits against intestinal bacteria. J
Food Prot. 2006;69(9):2205-9.
16. Sato Y, Oketani H, Singyouchi K, Ohtsubo T, Kihara M, Shibata H. Extraction
and purication of effective anti-microbial constituents of Terminalia chebula
Retz. against methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Bull Pharm Bull.
1997;20(4):401-4.
1 7. Barazani VO, Sathiyomoorthy P, Shalev R, Vardy D, Golan GA. Screening of South-
Indian medicinal plants for anti-fungal activity. Phyther Res. 2003;17(9):1123-5.

Anand et al.: T. cheb u l a
Pharmacognosy Journal, Vol 8, Issue 4, Jul-Aug, 2016 309
18. Bonjar GH. Inhibition of Clotrimazole-resistant Candida albicans by plants used
in Iranian folkloric medicine. Fitoterapia. 2004.
19. Jeong AHN, Kim CY, Lee JS, Kim TG, Kim SH, Lee CK. Inhibition of HIV-1
integrase by galloyl glucoses from Terminalia chebula and ovonol glycoside
gallates from Euphorbia pekinensis. Plant Med. 2002;68(5):457-9.
20. Lee D, Boo K, Woo J, Duan F, Lee K, Kwon T. Anti-bacterial and Anti-viral activi-
ties of extracts from Terminalia chebula barks. J Korean Soc Appl Biol Chem.
2011;52(2):295-8.
21. Badmaev V, Nowakowski M. Protection of epithelial cells against inuenza A
virus by plant derived biological response modier Ledretan-96. Phytother Res.
2000;44(4):245-9.
22. Kurowa M, Nagasaka K, Hirabayashi T, Uyama S, Sato H, Kagiyama T. Efcacy of
traditional herbal medicines in combination with acyclovir against Herpes
Simplex Virus-1 infection in vitro and in vivo. Anti-viral Res. 1995;27(1-2):19.
23. Sabu MC, Kuttan R. Anti-diabetic activity of medicinal plants and its relationship
with their anti-oxidant property. J Ethnopharmacol. 2002;81(2):155-60.
24. Rao NK, Nammi S. Anti-diabetic and renoprotective effects of the chloroform
extract of Terminalia chebula seeds in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2007;7:6-11.
25. Suchalatha S, Shyamadevi CS. Protective effect of Terminalia chebula against
experimental myocardial injury induced by isoproterenol. Indian J Exp Biol.
2004;42(2):174-8.
26. Moeslinger T, Friedl R, Volf I, Brunner M, Koller E, Spieckermann PG. Inhibition
of inducible nitric oxide synthesis by the herbal preparation Padma 28 in macro-
phage cell line. Can J Physiol Pharmacol. 2000;78(11):861-6.
27. Nair V, Singh S, Gupta YK. Anti-arthritic and disease modifying activity
of Terminalia chebula Retz. In experimental models. J Pharm Pharmacol. 2010;
62(12):1801-6.
28. Pratibha N, Saxena VS, Amit A, D’Souza P, Bagchi M, Bagchi D. Anti-inamma-
tory activities of Aller-7, a novel polyherbal formulation for allergic rhinitis. Int J
Tissue React. 2004;26(1-2):43-51.
PICTORIAL ABSTRACT
• This review conrmed the ability of Terminalia chebula Retz.
• Terminalia chebula exhibit anti-microbial, anti-diabetic, cardio-protective,
anti-oxidant and anti-cancer activities.
• Its support the traditional uses Terminalia chebula.
ABOUT AUTHOR
Dr. A. Vijaya Anand: Associate Professor and Head, Department of Human Genetics and Molecular Biology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore,
Tamil Nadu, India. He has published multiple scientic articles in international journals. He is currently engaged in the eld of phytopharmacology,
neurogenetics, medical genetics and clinical biochemistry.
SUMMARY