Emblica officinalis སྐྱུ་རུ་ར།

English name: Emblic myrobalan (Indian gooseberry, alma)

Tibetan name: Kyu-ru-ra (སྐྱུ་རུ་ར)

Location: found in India, Nepal and China below 1800 meter in the warm forests, hillsides and near fields 

Part used: fruit (འབྲས་བུ)

Taste and potency: astringent and sour taste (རོ་སྐྱུར་ཞིང་བསྐ་བ་); sour post-digestive taste (ཞུ་རྗེས་སྐྱུར་བ་); cool, dull and coarse potency (ནུས་པ་བསིལ་ཞིང་རྟུལ་ལ་རྩུབ་པའོ་)

In the ancient scrolls and oral traditions of Tibet, Emblic Myrobalan occupies a revered place, its mention intertwined with tales of profound healing and holistic wellness. Within the intricate framework of Traditional Tibetan Medicine, this botanical marvel is not merely viewed as a medicinal herb but as a sacred ally in the quest for balance and vitality.

 

Profound value of Emblica officinalis in Tibetan Medicine:

• Balancing the Three Humors (འདུ་བ་སྙོམས་): According to Tibetan Medicine, health is governed by the equilibrium of three vital energies known as Wind (རླུང་), Tripa (མཁྲིས་པ་), and Beken (བད་ཀན་). Emblic myrobalan harmonizing these humors, restoring balance, and promoting overall well-being. It is especially effective for combined Tripa and Beken disorders.

• Immune Support (ཁྲག་ཚད་གཉན་ཚད་): Amla is celebrated in Tibetan Medicine for its potent immune-boosting properties. Rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, it strengthens the body's natural defences, enhances immune function, and helps ward off infections. From common colds and sore throat to blood (ངན་ཁྲག་) and Tripa (མཁྲིས་པ་) fevers to, Amla stands as a formidable ally in supporting health.

• Cardiovascular Support: In Tibetan Medicine, Amla is revered for its benefits to cardiovascular health. It helps to revoke "bad" blood (ངན་ཁྲག་), maintain healthy cholesterol levels, supports proper circulation, balances blood pressure and strengthens the heart muscle. By promoting cardiovascular wellness, Amla contributes to longevity and vitality, empowering individuals to lead heart-healthy lives.

• Hair and Skin Care (སྐྲ་བུད་): Amla is cherished for its beauty-enhancing properties in Tibetan Medicine. It nourishes the scalp, promotes hair growth, and helps prevent premature graying and hair loss. Additionally, it rejuvenates the skin, promotes collagen production, and combats signs of aging, revealing a radiant and youthful complexion.

• Acute liver and bile disorders (མཆིན་དང་མཁྲིས་པའི་ནད་): Amla is said to pacify the acute liver "heat" and falling of bile into hollow organs.  It supports liver function, aids in detoxification, and helps regulate bile secretion. In Tibetan Medicine we see eyes as flowers of the liver, and therefore Amla also strengthens and clears our eyesight. 

• Beneficial for Various Disorders: Amla is considered beneficial for a range of health conditions in Tibetan Medicine. It is also used to address "hot" types of swelling, frequent urination and it is believed to have therapeutic effects on diabetes (གཅིན་ཁ་སྙི་བ་), aiding in blood sugar regulation and promoting overall metabolic health.

 

According to the Second Tibetan Medicine Tantra (བཤད་པའི་རྒྱུད།):

Present in Daknang formulas:

• DAKNANG 1
• DAKNANG 2
• DAKNANG 3
• DAKNANG 6
• DAKNANG 10
• DAKNANG 16
• DAKNANG 69
• DAKNANG 100

 

References:

1. The Tibetan Art of Healing by Ian A. Baker
2. Fundamentals of Tibetan Medicine by Thinley Gyatso
3. Healing with Form, Energy, and Light by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
4. Tibetan Medicine and Other Holistic Health Care Systems edited by Charles Leslie
5. A Handbook of Tibetan Medicinal Plants by Dr. Tsering Dorjee Dekhang (MD)
6. Tibetan Medicinal Plants by Dr. Tenzin Dakpa
7. Essentials of Tibetan Traditional Medicine by Thinley Gyatso and Chris Hakim
8. བོད་ཀྱི་གསོ་རིག་དང་ཨ་ཡུར་ཝེ་དྷ་ཀྲུང་དབྱིའི་སྨན་གཞུང་བཅས་ལས་བསྟན་པའི་སྐྱེ་དངོས་སྨན་རྫས་ཀྱི་དཔར་རིས་དང་ལག་ལེན་གཅེས་བཏུས་བློ་གསར་རིག་པའི་སྒོ་འབྱེད་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།། by Dr. Tsultrim Kalsang (Men-Tsee-Khang)
9. ༄༅།།བོད་ཀྱི་གསོ་བ་རིག་པའོ་རྒྱུད་བཞི་ལས་རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད་དང་བཤད་པའི་རྒྱུད་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Root Tantra and the Explanatory Tantra by Men-Tsee-Khang publisher