What is Terminalia arjuna ?

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Recently, I bought Arjuna tree (Terminalia Arjuna) as a small sapling, from a nursery in Padappai near Chennai. It was too tall, about seven feet; I decided to cut short to 2 feet and cut into three pieces and planted them. After two months, when the torrential rain was all over, I found that all were doing extremely well.

When I bought, it had green leaves and when I cut and planted the cuttings all produced brown leaves. A few of my friends, who came to see my garden, saw these cuttings and said it was ‘Neer Maruthu’ and not Maruthu or Arjuna. I was terribly shocked to hear this, as I was more particular to grow only Arjuna Tree as it was the Nakshatra Tree of my wife. (Birth Star Treefor Swathi) As today, I had some extra time, I decided to find out what it is; either Arjuana or Neer Maruthu?

After an hour’s study I understood the matter and I was happy to know that both are the same and we all were right. It is known as Arjuna in English, Marutham in Tamil and Neer Maruthu in Malayala that is how we all were right.

Terminalia arjuna

The arjuna tree is a huge tree growing up to 25 meters tall; has a buttressed trunk, which forms a huge canopy with numerous shoots dropping downwards on all sides. The leaves are oblong and conical with green top and brown below. The bark is grey to pale white in color and the flowers are yellow. Usually the flowers appear between April and June and are around 2 cm in size.

Terminalia arjuna is usually found growing on the river banks or near dry rivers, hence the name neer maruthu. It is found vastly in Bangladesh, West Bengal and south India and central India. It is known as 'marutha maram' (marutham pattai) in Tamil, thella maddi in Telugu, neer maruthu in Malayalam, matthimara in Kannada and kohda in Rajasthani.

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The arjuna has been used as a treatment for heart diseases in Ayurveda by Vagbhata during the 7th century CE itself. A traditional milk decoction called Ashtānga Hridayam is prepared from the Arjuna bark. It is also mentioned in many other ancient Indian vedas, and is a well known remedy for thousands of years. Vagbhata mentions arjuna in his book Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā as topical medicine powder for hemorrhages, ulcers and wounds. Arjuna is the most excellent medicine for Heart and it has the capacity to even overcome heart failures.

The arjuna leaves are fed to the silk moth which yields the tassar silk, which is a commercially important wild silk. Hence it is grown vastly and has a commercial importance too.