Arjuna (Terminalia arjuna)

Australian Herbal Pharmacopoeia (working title), monograph AIP-PH-TERARJ (formerly AIP-HP 018)
Version: 1.0 draft
Date: 2026
Status: working document, version 1.0
Prepared by: Dr Thomas Ridley, Head of Education and Research, Australian Institute of Pharmacognosy, Cardwell, Queensland

0. Free-teaser block

0.1 Identity card

Field	Entry
Monograph	AIP-PH-TERARJ (formerly AIP-HP 018), Arjuna bark (Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. ex DC.) Wight & Arn.), Terminaliae arjunae cortex. Version 1.0 draft. Published 2026 (working document); next review 2029, or sooner if a major trial reports
Accepted name	Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. ex DC.) Wight & Arn., published 1834 in Wight and Arnott’s Prodromus Florae Peninsulae Indiae Orientalis, vol 1, p 314; accepted in the World Checklist of Vascular Plants 16.0 (the dataset behind Plants of the World Online), IPNI 170962-1, checked 29/09/2026 [1]
Family	Combretaceae (APG IV)
Plant part	Dried stem bark. Latin drug name Terminaliae arjunae cortex (a descriptive title in pharmacopoeial form; no pharmacopoeia we have read gives this drug a Latin title)
Main synonym	Pentaptera arjuna Roxb. ex DC. (basionym); eleven heterotypic synonyms in section 1 [1]
Common and traditional names	Arjuna, arjun, arjun myrobalan (English trade use); Sanskrit arjuna, kakubha, pārtha, śvetavāha; Hindi arjuna; Tamil marudam; Telugu maddi [2, 11]
Pharmacopoeial status elsewhere	Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, Part I, Vol. II (1999), monograph 8, Arjuna (stem bark) [2]. No monograph in the Ph. Eur. 8th edition [18] or in WHO Monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants vols 1-4. BP, USP-NF, Chinese Pharmacopoeia and EMA/HMPC: no monograph known to us; not confirmed against current editions. British Herbal Pharmacopoeia: not checked (the AIP reference library holds only a two-page summary of it, without monographs)
Australian status	Permissible Ingredients Determination (No. 2) 2026, Schedule 1, item 4870 TERMINALIA ARJUNA: active ingredient only, oral use only, bark only, maximum recommended daily dose 6 g dried bark or extract equivalent, label warnings "Not recommended for use by pregnant and lactating women" and "Not suitable for children" [3]. Not in any Schedule of the Poisons Standard June 2026 [4]. Not native to Australia and not recorded as naturalised [1, 8]. Not prohibited or restricted matter under Queensland biosecurity law [5]. Not CITES-listed [6]. ARTG product entries not checked in this version
Named markers	Identity: arjunic acid (CID 15385516), arjungenin (CID 12444386), arjunetin (CID 21152828) by HPTLC [15]; ellagic acid (CID 5281855) and gallic acid (CID 370) by HPLC [14]. No assay limit set by any pharmacopoeia; AIP limit to be set, AIP bench data pending
Purity limits in force elsewhere	Foreign matter not more than 2 per cent; total ash not more than 25 per cent; acid-insoluble ash not more than 1 per cent; alcohol-soluble and water-soluble extractives each not less than 20 per cent [2]
Evidence snapshot	Chronic stable angina: Tier C, 5 small studies in one systematic review, very low certainty [22]. Chronic heart failure (add-on): Tier C, 2 RCTs, very low certainty [23, 24]. LVEF in healthy adults, one proprietary aqueous extract: Tier B, 1 RCT, low certainty, not carried over to other preparations [26]. Lipids, exercise capacity, type 2 diabetes: Tier C, single small trials [9, 25, 28]. Heart disease, wounds and fractures in Ayurveda: Tier T [2]. Cardioprotection and CYP inhibition: Tier P [9, 15]
Main safety point	Extracts inhibit CYP3A4, CYP2D6 and CYP2C9 in human liver microsomes [15], and bark powder prolonged prothrombin time in rabbits and in one old uncontrolled patient series [9], so warfarin and antiplatelet users need monitoring (section 15); people using this drug are usually already taking cardiac medicines. Not for pregnancy, lactation or children under the Australian listing conditions [3]
Suggested citation	Australian Institute of Pharmacognosy. AIP-PH-TERARJ: Arjuna bark (Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. ex DC.) Wight & Arn.), Terminaliae arjunae cortex. Australian Herbal Pharmacopoeia (working title). Version 1.0 draft. Cardwell (Qld): AIP; 2026. DOI to be assigned
Compiler and review	Compiled by Dr Thomas Ridley (Education and Research). Technical review: Dr Fiona MacAllister (Botanical, sections 1-5, 10), reviewed in 2026; Dr Hana Suzuki (QA, sections 6-10), reviewed in 2026; Dr Eleanor Whitcombe (Medicine, sections 12, 13, 15), reviewed in 2026; Dr Thomas Ridley (Education and Research, citation and evidence audit of all sections, references and figures), reviewed in 2026; Jesse Kirby (Community Outreach, figure placement, captions, credit lines and page layout), reviewed in 2026. Published: not yet. Last modified: 2026. Version 1.0 draft
Provenance	Original AIP data: none. Every analytical, clinical and botanical statement comes from the cited pharmacopoeia, literature or database; sections 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 carry "AIP bench data pending"
Canonical URL	/pharmacopoeia/terminalia-arjuna/ (on publication)

0.2 Summary

Arjuna is the stem bark of Terminalia arjuna, a large riverside tree of the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, and the best-known heart remedy of Ayurveda [1, 2, 9]. The drug arrives as flat to channelled pieces of bark, grey and fairly smooth outside, pinkish and fibrous inside, bitter and astringent to taste. Under the microscope it shows a thin cork, a wide secondary phloem with rows of fibre groups, and large numbers of calcium oxalate rosettes and crystal idioblasts [2]. Chemically it is a tannin drug with a small triterpene fraction: an aqueous extract was 44 per cent polyphenols and under 1 per cent triterpenes [14]. No pharmacopoeia sets an assay; identity rests on macroscopy, microscopy and a published HPTLC system that resolves arjunic acid, arjungenin and arjunetin [2, 15]. The one official standard, the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, gives ash and extractive limits only [2].

The clinical evidence is thin. Five small, high-risk-of-bias studies in stable angina gave no significant pooled benefit [22]; two heart-failure trials suggest improvement in NYHA class without a clear change in ejection fraction [23, 24]; single trials in healthy adults and in diabetes are small or maker-funded [25, 26, 28]. The main safety point is interaction: extracts inhibit three major CYP enzymes in vitro [15], bark powder lengthened prothrombin time in rabbits and in a small uncontrolled patient series [9], and the people who take arjuna are usually on cardiac drugs, warfarin among them.

0.3 Contents with extent

Section	Pages (approx.)
0 Free-teaser block	4
1 Nomenclature	0.7
2 Definition	0.3
3 Source and Australian supply; 3.1 origin, climate and chemistry	3
4 Macroscopy	2.5
5 Microscopy	2
6 Chemistry	2
7 Named markers and assay limits	1
8 TLC fingerprint	1.5
9 HPLC fingerprint	1.5
10 Identity, purity, adulterants and contaminants	2
11 Traditional use	0.5
12 Current practice	1.5
13 Clinical evidence	5
14 Pharmacology	1
15 Safety	1.5
16-18 Discussion, conclusions, research needed	3
19 References	1.5
20 Document control	1.5

Totals: @@PAGES@@ printed A4 pages in the current layout; 16 figures (15 images plus 1 captioned slot awaiting AIP bench work); 0 AIP photomicrographs; 1 published HPLC chromatogram reproduced under CC BY 4.0 (not an AIP run); TLC shown as a schematic redrawn from published Rf values; 14 tables; 12 clinical studies described and graded by outcome (4 read in full as primary reports, 8 through full-text systematic reviews or reference books) and 3 systematic reviews read in full; 43 references.

Gaps listed openly: F4 (AIP photomicrographs) is pending: no licensed photomicrograph of this drug was found in Wikimedia Commons or in the open-access papers read for this version, and none will be drawn to look like a specimen. F7 is a schematic redrawn from published Rf values; an AIP plate is pending. F8 is a published chromatogram from another laboratory’s method; an AIP chromatogram is pending.

0.4 Contributors and access

Compiled by Dr Thomas Ridley, Head of Education and Research. Technical reviewers are named in the identity card; each is credited once their review is on record. Dr Luke Iggulden set the scope of the pharmacopoeia series; he did not write this monograph. The free sample of this monograph is its first five printed pages; the full text is available to Scholar members and above under the Institute’s personal-use licence.