Abstract

Herbal medicines are in great demand in the developed as well as developing countries for primary heath care because of their wide biological and medicinal activities, higher safety margin and lower costs. Terminalia chebula Retz. is an important medicinal plant and has been extensively used in ayurveda, unani and homoeopathic medicine and has become cynosure of modern medicine. It is called “King of Medicines” in Tibet and is always listed first in ayurvedic meteria medica because of its extraordinary power of healing. It has been reported to exhibit a variety of biological activities including, antidiabetic, antimutagenic, antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activities. All these activities are due to presence of various phytochemicals in plants. Thus, phytochemical analysis of plant is necessary and provides useful information. This review gives a bird’s eye view, mainly on the biological and pharmacological activities of some compounds of T. chebula, clinical studies and plausible medicinal applications, along with their safety evaluation.

Key words: Terminalia chebula Retz., biological and pharmacological activities, plausible medicinal applications, safety evaluation.