Talk:myrobalan

More than you ever wanted to know about myrobalans

Hobson-Jobson (1903) tells us this:

The kinds recognised in the Medieval pharmacopoeia were five, viz.:—

(1) The Emblic myrobalan; which is the dried astringent fruit of the Ānwulā, ānwlā of Hind., the Emblica officinalis of Gaertner (Phyllanthus Emblica, L., N. O. Euphorbiaceae). The Persian name of this is āmlah, but, as the Arabic amlaj suggests, probably in older Persian amlag, and hence no doubt Emblica. Garcia says it was called by the Arab physicians embelgi (which we should write ambaljī).

(2) The Belleric Myrobalan; the fruit of Terminalia Bellerica, Roxb. (N.O. Combretaceae), consisting of a small nut enclosed in a thin exterior rind. The Arabic name given in Ibn Baithar is balīlij; in the old Latin version of Avicenna belilegi; and in Persian it is called balīl and balīla. Garcia says the Arab physicians called it beleregi (balīrij, and in old Persian probably balīrig) which accounts for Bellerica.

(3) The Chebulic Myrobalan; the fruit of Terminalia Chebula, Roxb. The derivation of this name which we have given under CHEBULI is confirmed by the Persian name, which is Halīla-i-Kābulī. It can hardly have been a product of Kabul, but may have been imported into Persia by that route, whence the name, as calicoes got their name from Calicut. Garcia says these myrobalans were called by his Arabs quebulgi. Ibn Baithar calls them halīlaj, and many of the authorities whom he quotes specify them as Kābulī.

(4) and (5). The Black Myrobalan, otherwise called 'Indian,' and the Yellow or Citrine. These, according to Royle (Essay on Antiq. of Hindoo Medicine, pp. 36-37), were both products of T. Chebula in different states; but this does not seem quite certain. Further varieties were sometimes recognised, and nine are said to be specified in a paper in an early vol. of the Philos. Transactions.[28] One kind called Ṣīnī or Chinese, is mentioned by one of the authorities of Ibn Baithar, quoted below, and is referred to by Garcia.

Equinox ◑ 08:49, 2 December 2021 (UTC)

@Equinox: I have done the myrobalans in Arabic two years ago. They are three, the “three myrobalans”, إِطْرِيفَل (ʔiṭrīfal, “triphala”), you always only come up with three if you try to break down/map Asiatic vernacular names and obsolete taxa onto modern botanical names, it was only Europeans who get confused in the multitude and scarcity of access to material. (Not to confuse with turpeth which is also “three” somewhere – obviously all good things are three even to ancient Indian logics.)

Note also, beside the triphala hyponyms, the derived terms of إِهْلِيلَج (ʔihlīlaj), where you really get all details. Only إِهْلِيلَج أَصْفَر (ʔihlīlaj ʔaṣfar, “hara nut (Terminalia citrina)”) is a fourth species but was not as much used as the others, so we are at 3+1 optional one.

You see also that that some of the adjectives in English myrobalan names are just calques or cranberry morpheme borrowings (via Latin) of the Arabic names, in which latter case they methinks should not be linked as they only occur in these words (if not rarely analogically elsewhere?). Fay Freak (talk) 16:24, 2 December 2021 (UTC)