ककुभः - Terminalia arjuna
Name - ककुभः
Botanical name - Terminalia arjuna
Description - A large evergreen tree with smooth grey bark exfoliating in large, thin, irregular sheets, often tinged with green and red. The leaves are oblong, opposite and sub-opposite. The leaves on the lower surface usually carry a pair of prominent glands close to the top of the leaf-stalk. The flowers are pale-yellowish-white, cup-shaped, resembling myrobalan, small and crowded on a long axis. It flowers from March to June when its honey attracts swarms of bees. The fruit is a winged nut, the leathery wings are usually five in number and are closely veined, the veins not spreading horizontally but tending to curve upwards. The fruit is tan-coloured when dry.
Chemical Constituents- Plant contains triterpene arjunolitin. Roots and root bark contain triterpenoid glycoside arjunoside I-IV, triterpene terminic acid. Stem bark contains flavone arjunolone, arjunglucoside, tannin, arjunic acid, arjunetin, arjungenin. Fruits contain Beta-sitosterol , friedelin, methyloleanolate, gallic acid, ellagic acid, arjunic acid, ceresidin, arjunone.
Use - Its bark is astringent and is used in fevers and in fractures and contusions; it is also taken as a cardiac tonic.----Bark styptic, tonic, febrifuge and anti-dysenteric; pulverised bark gives relief in symptomatic hypertension and acts as a diuretic in cirrhosis of liver. Fruits tonic and deobstruent. Juice of leaves used in earache
