A Review on Terminalia chebula Retz. (Harar)-An Important Multipurpose Tree

Abstract

as 'Harar' belongs to the family Combretaceae. It is found in deciduous forests throughout the greater part of India, China, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc. In India, it is distributed throughout the greater part except in arid zones. The fruits are common constituent of 'Triphala', capable of imparting youthful vitality and receptivity of mind and sense and are extensively used for clinical research, tanning and furniture purposes and also contain 1.73% nitrogen and 2.75% Calcium. The demand for its fruit has increased tremendously, because of its medicinal value; its fruits are sold at a price of ` 10-60 kg-1. However, the poor germination capacity, lack of natural regeneration and knowledge regarding its propagation are the limiting factors for its adoption in agroforestry systems. There is need of more productive planting stock with lower juvenile period and comparatively large fruit size.

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A Review on Terminalia chebula Retz. (Harar)- An Important Mulpurpose Tree
Samanpreet Singh1, Avinash Kumar Bhaa2*, Kamal Sharma2 and Dushyant Sharma2
1College of Forestry, Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horculture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, H.P. (173 230), India
2College of Horculture and Forestry, Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horculture and Forestry, Neri, Hamirpur, H.P. (177 001), India
Terminalia chebula Retz. commonly known as ‘Harar’ belongs to the family Combretaceae. It is found in deciduous forests throughout the
greater part of India, China, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc. In India, it is distributed throughout the greater part except
in arid zones. The fruits are common constuent of ‘ Triphala’, capable of imparng youthful vitality and recepvity of mind and sense
and are extensively used for clinical research, tanning and furniture purposes and also contain 1.73% nitrogen and 2.75% Calcium. The
demand for its fruit has increased tremendously, because of its medicinal value; its fruits are sold at a price of ` 10-60 kg-1. However, the
poor germinaon capacity, lack of natural regeneraon and knowledge regarding its propagaon are the liming factors for its adopon
in agroforestry systems. There is need of more producve planng stock with lower juvenile period and comparavely large fruit size.
1. Introducon and Socio-economic Importance
Terminalia chebula is one of the very important indigenous
multi-purpose tree species and is commonly known as
Harar, Harra, Hirda, Myrobalan and Haritaki (Burkill, 1985).
It is however, called the “king of medicines”. The fruits of
the species are used locally in many medicines and are
an important constituent of ‘Triphala’ and commercially
used in many Ayurvedic medicines to treat heart burn,
atulence, dyspepsia, liver and spleen disorders, asthma and
conspaon. There are various companies that use harar for
making their various products like Himalaya, Dabur, Organic
India, Kapiva, Baidyanath, etc. Apart from medicinal and
clinical uses, myrobalans are also used in the preparaon
of ink and in dye as a mordant for the basic aniline dyes and
the fruit is extensively used for tanning. The wood is used for
building purposes, agricultural implements, plywood and in
match box industry. It is also grown as a shade tree (Joy et
al., 1998; Joshi, 2002; Khare, 2007 and Trivedi, 2008), also
for cabinet work, furniture and interior ng (Sambamurty,
2005). This plant is also used as fodder (Kumar and Bha,
2006). In some states of India and some countries from gulf
like Arabic, Afghanistan and Pakistan, fruit jam is used as food
supplement.
2. Distribuon and Growth Behavior
Terminalia chebula Retz. occurs typically in dry deciduous
forests and favoring clay soil, up to 1450 m in southern
India, 450 m in Central India, 200 m in Western India, 500
m in North East India and 1500 m in Himalaya. In its natural
habitat, it occurs at an elevaon of 500-1500 m where the
mean maximum temperature in its habitat varies from 37 °C
to 48 °C, absolute minimum temperature from 1 °C to 15 °C
and annual rainfall from 750 to 3250 mm (Joshie and Narain,
1992). It is also found in sub Himalayan tract from the Ravi
eastward to West Bengal and Assam. It is found on variety of
geological formaons and on laterite, clayey as well as sandy
soil. The species is a strong light demander, frost-hardy and
drought resistant to a considerable extent. It coppices very
well, the coppice-shoots being oen very vigorous. T. chebula
does not suer from pollinator limitaon to maximize fruit
set but from the limitaon of compable pollen and ower
(Sankanur et al., 2015).
3. Chemical Properes
Terminalia chebula is a rich source of tannin (27.3-40.0%)
which varies with genotype and geographical locaon. The
chief constuents of tannin are chebulic acid, chebulagic
acid, corrilagin and gallic acid. Besides these, amino acids,
succinic acid, betasitosterol, resin and purgave principles
of anthroquinone and sennoside nature are also present.
The leaves contain 1.73% nitrogen (equivalent to 10.80%
protein content) and 2.75% Calcium (Singh, 1982). It also
Agroforestry, deciduous, juvenile, propagaonKeywords:
Abstract
Article History
Arcle ID: IJEP0361
Received in 02nd March, 2020
Received in revised form 15th March, 2020
Accepted in nal form 19th March, 2020
Avinash Kumar Bhaa
e-mail: avinashgolu1997@gmail.com
Corresponding Author
Review Article
Doi: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.23910/2/2020.0361
International Journal of Economic Plants 2020, 7(2):049-052
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consists of nutrients such as vitamin C, protein, amino acids
and minerals (Mahesh et al., 2007). Some carbohydrates are
also present like glucose, sorbitol, fructose and sucrose. Other
important constuents include phenolics such as chebulinic
acid, ellagic acid and anthraquinones. Some of the other minor
constuents are polyphenols such as corilagin, galloyl glucose,
punicalagin, teravin A, teravin B, maslinic acid, etc. In clinical
trials, the fruit of T. chebula is reported to be hepatoprotecve
(Tasduq et al., 2006), an-hyperlipidimic (Israni et al., 2010),
an-arthric (Nair et al., 2010), anhelminc (Dwivedi, 2008),
immune modulator (Aher and Kumar, 2010), anbacterial
(Bag et al., 2009), cardioprotective (Reddy et al., 1990),
anmutagenic, ancarcinogenic (Reddy et al., 2009; Saleem et
al., 2010), an-HIV (Ahn et al., 2002) and andiabac (Kannan
et al., 2012). The observed health benets may be credited to
the presence of the various phytochemicals like polyphenols,
terpenes, anthocyanins, avonoids, alkaloids and glycosides.
Fruits are used for diabetes, fever and anemia (Daniel, 2005).
4. Propagaon
The eect of dierent harvesng me and seed treatments
on seed germinaon, variaon in fruit characteriscs, and
effect of sizes of root stock (diameter) and methods of
graing on sproung success and growth of the seedlings
was invesgated by Saleem et al. (2013). The seeds collected
from mid January till mid March resulted in statistically
signicant higher germinaon than those collected from mid
November to January beginning. Mechanical breaking of seed
coat resulted in the highest germinaon (73.6%) which was
signicantly higher than all other pre-sowing treatments.
Vegetative propagation has been found advantageous
over seed propagation as the former technique reduces
the juvenile period and subsequently facilitates early
maturing. Three graing methods (cleft, tongue graing and
patch budding) were tested by Sharma et al. (1995) using
scion material from a T. chebula tree selected in Himachal
Pradesh for its superior fruit (the fruits are used medicinally)
and 4 year old stock plants of T. chebula and T. belerica.
Only the patch budding method was successful, with growth
starng 45 days aer graing, and producing 18 cm sprouts
within 3 weeks, in contrast to seedlings which grew to 15-20
cm in 7 months. The natural regeneraon of T. chebula by
seed is poor due to its hard mesocarp, thick shell and poor
formaon of kernel and vegetave propagaon through quite
successful, requires juvenile period for fruing. To overcome
me diculty its cle graing was tried and was successful
in geng good gra plants in good me. These were also
well branched, gave suitable branchlet for approach graing
which was also very successful and opens new horizon’s
for the formaon of a clonal bank for this species. This new
technology will also help farmers in obtaining sustained
income gains as well (Srivastava, 2000).
5. Insect-Pests
Uredo terminaliae causes leaf rust disease on clonal plants
Singh et al., 2020
of Terminalia chebula in the research nursery of State
Forest Department, Coimbatore (Mohan and Manokaran,
2005). The disease started appearing during the month of
November. Very severe infecon (95%) was noced during
January. Infected leaves were plastered with light brown to
yellowish brown fruit bodies of the pathogen at the lower
surface of the leaves. Severely infected plants showed
premature defoliaon. Harar trees growing at Advanced
Centre for Rainfed Agriculture (ACRA), SKUAST-J, Dhiansar
were noced to be infected severely by several insect pests;
major among them were the gall forming insects, scales
and mealy bugs (Reena et al., 2017). Year round study was
therefore conducted to idenfy the gall forming insect; one of
the major insect pest. The losses inicted by them, in terms of
reducon in chlorophyll content, photosynthec area; thereby
resulng in economic loss was also assessed. Gall formaon
was noced in approximately 30-40% of harad leaves on their
underside during July. Curling of leaves also started along with
the formaon of galls. By the end of October, the galls aain
their full size. All this greatly reduced the photosynthec area
and eciency of leaves. On dissecng these galls at dierent
stages of their formaon, thrips were found inside.
6. Genec Studies
Genetic transformation of Terminalia chebula Retz. was
carried out by Shyamkumar et al. (2007) using Agrobacterium
tumefaciens strain C-58. Explants such as cotyledon,
hypocotyl, excised mature zygoc embryo, cotyledonary node,
in vitro leaf and shoot were used for genec transformaon.
Dierent experimental methods were followed for infecng
the explants. Cotyledon and hypocotyl explants showed
swelling response on MS basal medium subsequent to genec
transformaon. About 32.5±2.5% cultures showed swelling
response when 8–12 d in vitro pre-cultured cotyledon explants
were used. Swelling response was not observed in non-
transformed control cotyledon explants. Callus inducon was
observed in one of the swollen cotyledon explants infected
with the bacterial suspension grown on media containing
0.1 mM acetosyringone. Callus iniaon was not observed in
cotyledon explants without co-culvaon, which were kept
as control. The transformed callus was subjected to nopaline
assay using paper electrophoresis. The analysis indicated
the transformed nature of the callus with the presence of
nopaline and its absence in non-transformed control callus.
The transformed callus was analyzed for the presence of
tannins using thin layer chromatography, which indicated the
presence of tannic acid in the transformed callus. Verma et al.
(2013) carried out in vitro regeneraon of T. chebula to obtain
complete plantlets from juvenile explants (hypocotyls and
cotyledon). Dried seed were inoculated on MS medium aer
surface sterilizaon with Bavisn (0.2%) alone and followed
by HgCl2 (0.1%), resulted in maximum (75%) germinaon.
Hypocotyl showed 90% and cotyledon 75% callus inducon
on MS medium containing 1.0 mg l-1 2, 4-D aer 30 days of
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inoculaon. Shoot regeneraon was recorded only from
cotyledonary callus on shoot inducon medium comprising 1.5
mg l-1 BAP with 10 mg l-1 NAA with maximum (36.67%) shoot
regeneraon. Maximum (43.75%) roong was reported in ½
strength MS medium with 0.5% acvated charcoal. Transgenic
callus was produced through Agrobacterium tumifaciens
mediated genec transformaon carrying gus and npt-II gene
from cotyledonary explants. Co-culvaon (72 h) proceeded
by pre-condioning (72 h) was found best for callus inducon.
Successful integraon of gus gene was reported. Ranjini et
al. (2015) carried out a study which was aimed to reveal its
genec diversity based on molecular markers from twelve T.
chebula accessions located at Herbal garden, Indian Instute
of Horcultural Research, Bengaluru. Molecular diversity was
studied using RAPD markers. A total of 8 polymorphic primers
produced 314 polymorphic bands and 195 monomorphic
bands. Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmec Mean
(UPMGA) dendrogram divided the accessions into 2 major
clusters. Accession IIHRTc2 and IIHRTc10 showed maximum
genec diversity with 55% similarity. This characterizaon
based on molecular markers will help in idencaon of
economically useful accessions for further crop improvement
programme. This genec diversity analysis study in T. chebula
using molecular markers will assist in conservaon and further
improvement of the species through breeding.
7. Producon and Markeng
India is by far the main producing country of Harar. Producon
of dried fruits in India is esmated to be 100,000 tonnes of
which 20% is exported to adjoining countries, Europe and U.S.
(World Agroforestry Centre). Large sized fruits fetch higher
price in the naonal and internaonal markets and thus fruit
size is an important characterisc. Harar freshly collected and
dried immediately have yellowish color and fetch a beer
price. The demand for its fruit has increased tremendously,
because of its medicinal value; its fruits are sold at a price
of ` 10 to 60 kg-1. The Harar produced in Morni Hills and the
adjoining part of Haryana is in great demand in Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and other Gulf countries. The Harar
fruits are sold at two places (Khari Bawali in New Delhi and
Majitha in Amritsar district) in North India. In South India,
Coimbatore, Mumbai, Chennai, Nagpur, Bangalore and Indore
are the major markets of Harar. Guleria et al. (2017) analyzed
the Economics of Producon of NTFPs: A case study of Harar
(Terminalia chabula) in Himachal Pradesh, a sample of 40
farmers each from Sirmour and Kangra district of Himachal
Pradesh. They found that the average establishment cost
per year was ` 13550 100-1 plants. The maintenance cost
of graed harar increased from ` 12241.78 to ` 123675.30
during 2nd year to 15th year and net returns varied from ` (-)
12241 to 116262. The payback period worked out to be 9
years, NPV as ` 226106, the benet-cost rao as 1.57 and
internal rate of return (IRR) as 33% under the present value
summaon method.
8. Problems/Constraints
The poor germinaon capacity, lack of natural regeneraon
and knowledge regarding its propagaon are the liming
factors for its adopon in Agroforestry systems. Further its
culvaon in Agroforestry systems is constrained by lack of
availability of superior selecons. Other causes such as hard
seed coat, seed predaon, peak fruit fall coincided with post
monsoon, etc. may also aect on regeneraon (Bhardwaj and
Chakaborty, 1994; Srivatsava, 2000). Fruits harvested from
natural populaons for commercial purpose may be one of
the major causes for poor natural regeneraon in T. chebula.
The fruits when allowed to lie on the ground have darker
color with somemes mould aack. Tannin content in such
decaying fruits is also very low. Mould aack also somemes
occurs on the tree and this is menoned as the major cause
of poor quality of myrobalans.
9. Conclusion
Due to commercial importance of T. chebula, several farmers
have shown interest in bringing the species under culvaon.
These farmers should be trained for vegetave propagaon of
improved variees. Complete absence of natural regeneraon
of Harar in its natural population confirms the urgency
of propagation of the species with the help of artificial
techniques. Overall, the Government support is mandatory
in terms of value addion and markeng of Harar to improve
the economic growth and stability of the farmers.
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