What Is Arjuna?

Arjuna extract is prepared from the stem bark of Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. ex DC.) Wight & Arn., a large deciduous tree of the Combretaceae family native to the river valleys of the Indian subcontinent.

It is the principal cardiac botanical of Ayurveda, named in the classical literature as hridya, and its documented traditional use spans well over a thousand years. Among Ayurvedic botanicals whose heritage claims are sometimes generous, arjuna's is unusually specific and unusually old.

The Specification Everybody Writes

Open almost any arjuna quotation and you will find the same line: tannins NLT 40%.

There is nothing wrong with measuring tannins. Arjuna bark is genuinely tannin-rich, the assay is real, and the figure correlates loosely with extract strength. The problem is what the figure cannot tell you.

Tannins are among the most widespread constituents in the plant kingdom, and tree bark is where they concentrate. A 40% tannin specification is satisfied by:

A tannin assay tells you that you have a tannin-rich bark. It does not tell you that you have arjuna. This is the same structural blind spot that appears wherever a standardisation marker is not species-specific — the assay and the identity question are different jobs, and only one of them is being done.

What Actually Identifies Arjuna

The constituents characteristic of T. arjuna are its pentacyclic triterpenoids: arjunolic acid, arjunic acid, arjungenin, and the glycoside arjunetin.

These are the compounds the pharmacological literature on arjuna is built on, and unlike tannins they are not something every bark carries. A chromatographic profile showing the characteristic triterpenoid pattern is evidence about identity in a way that a tannin percentage is not.

So the specification you actually want has two lines rather than one:

  1. Tannins, with the method named — the strength measure.
  2. Arjunolic acid marker profile by HPLC against authentic T. arjuna reference — the identity measure.

The detail of how these two measurements differ is covered in our guide to arjuna standardisation and markers.

Name the Tannin Method

A second, quieter problem: tannin figures are strongly method-dependent.

Different assays — titrimetric, UV-based, protein-precipitation methods — give materially different numbers on the same material. A 40% by one method may be a 30% or a 50% by another.

This means that comparing two arjuna quotations on their tannin figures alone, without knowing the methods, is not a comparison at all. Ask for the method. If a supplier will not name it, that is itself informative.

The Part: Stem Bark, Not Wood

Arjuna is harvested by stripping bark from a standing tree. The wood beneath that bark is plentiful, cheap, and once dried and milled it is not obviously different to the eye.

Wood carry-over is the most ordinary form of dilution on this material — often not even deliberate, simply the result of careless stripping and milling. Require:

Reading Ash on Arjuna

One thing that catches out buyers new to this ingredient: total ash on arjuna runs higher than on most extracts, and that is normal.

Arjuna bark is genuinely rich in calcium and magnesium. A total ash figure that would look alarming on a leaf extract reflects the botanical here rather than indicating contamination.

The line to read for cleanliness is acid-insoluble ash, where soil, grit and woody carry-over appear. Hold that tightly — not more than 2% — and read total ash in context.

Extract Is Not Milled Bark

A distinction that produces real mispricing:

Milled bark powderBark extract
ProcessWhole bark, groundExtracted and concentrated
TanninsNative level, unconcentratedAssayed to specification
AppearancePale brownLight to reddish brown
UseClassical churnaStandardised formulation

Both are legitimate. They should never be quoted against the same specification, and a price that looks remarkable is usually explained by this distinction rather than by sourcing skill.

The Claim Question, Early

Arjuna's classical indication is cardiac, and that is a commercial constraint worth planning for before you formulate rather than after.

In the EU, cardiovascular claims for botanicals are effectively unavailable, and a product presented for heart conditions risks assessment as a medicinal product rather than a food supplement. Comparable logic applies across most regulated markets.

This does not make arjuna unsaleable — it makes traditional-use framing the sensible route. Our applications and claim boundary guide covers where the line sits.

A Sourcing Note Worth Caring About

Arjuna bark regenerates. Stripped partially and in rotation from a mature standing tree, the tree survives and the bark regrows over years. Stripped completely, or girdled, it kills a tree that took decades to mature.

This makes arjuna one of the more genuinely sustainable bark botanicals — but only when harvested by method rather than by volume. Ask about collection practice, and prefer cultivated plantation material where your specification allows. See our guide to sourcing and sustainable debarking.

What to Require

  1. Species by binomial — Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. ex DC.) Wight & Arn.
  2. Arjunolic acid marker profile by HPLC against authentic reference, result stated.
  3. Tannins with the method named, not a bare percentage.
  4. Stem-bark-only declaration, wood and heartwood excluded.
  5. Acid-insoluble ash NMT 2%, read separately from total ash.
  6. Heavy metals by ICP-MS, aflatoxins, and a full microbiological panel.
  7. Collection status declared per batch.

SV Botanica supplies arjuna bark extract from India against all of the above, with a batch-specific Certificate of Analysis. Request a quotation or sample.