Herbs
- Arjuna
Latin
-- Terminalia arjuna
Sanskrit -- Arjuna
Hindi -- Arjun
English -- Arjuna Myrobalans
Parts Used:
Bark (inner bark
is the potent part, but many companies include the dry inactive outer portion
to increase profits. MAPI uses only the inner portion and protects the tree
by harvesting amounts that the tree can repair.)
Traditional
Ayurvedic Uses:
Arjuna is a very
large tree. The bark is used in certain herbal combinations as a powerful,
soothing tonic for the heart. It is good for both the physical heart as a
muscle, as well as for the emotions associated with the heart.
Arjuna is used
for loneliness, sadness and frustration. It strengthens the emotions to decrease
excessive response to stress and trauma.
It helps strengthen
the body's natural rejuvenative processes, hastening the replacement of dead
or weak cells with fresh, vital ones.
In proper combinations,
Arjuna helps stabilize an erratic heart beat.
Arjuna helps
balance all three doshas at once (Vata, Pitta, Kapha), a rare and very valuable
property.
This tree herb
bears the same name as Arjuna, son of Pandu -- a great hero of the Bhagavad-Gita.
The Gita is a treasured poem from the Vedic epic called the Mahabharata.
The ayurvedic
physicians of Maharishi Ayurveda do not recommend the use of single herbs
for self-care due to several important reasons (see the index page of the
ayurvedic herb section for details).
One of the specialties
of ayurveda is the science of herb combining that has been perfected over
thousands of years of clinical practice. From this ayurvedic perspective,
the study of herbs from scientific research which is based on single ingredient
formulas is not very practical. This is because an herb can give a number
of different effects depending on the other herbs it is combined with as well
as a number of other factors such as dosage, how the herb was processed, etc.
If one focuses just on the results of a study based on one ingredient, while
it may be interesting, it does not give the full insight into the complete
range of effects available from that particular herb.
