AUTHENTICATION OF SEVEN INDIAN TRADITIONAL TYPES OF THE HERBAL DRUG TERMINALIA CHEBULA WITH SCIENTIFIC UPDATES – AN ADVANCED INSIGHT

The fruit of Terminalia chebula is an essential drug used in single and in many compound formulations of Indian traditional systems like Ayurveda & Siddha and Unani systems of medicine. This herbal drug is referred to as ‘The king of medicines’ which denote it’s efficacy and potency in treating diseases. The TCF is the richest source of phenols among other plants and is cherished with lead active ingredients with high scope for drug discovery for a spectrum of diseases because of the five tastes except for the salty taste in it. As global acceptance of traditional drugs increase in the past decades, compliance with the quality in terms of standard parameters and regulatory laws on the drugs also are sharpened. Drugs of poor quality degrade the clinical efficacy and also create a query on safety concerns. Authentication of a drug to be a genuine variety is of prime importance in standardization. Terminalia sps. are numerous. Seven types of medicinally useful TCFs are mentioned by the Siddhar (sage) Agathiyar based on regional morphological characters and the severity of purgative activity of the types also varies. There are other Terminalia fruits with similar actions of TCFs specific to various Indian geographies. Chances of adulteration and substitutions become high. Hence, authentication of TCFs is tedious and this literary study is an insight into the types with scientific updates. The study also provides a preliminary review to identify the fruit odor based induction of purgation.