Terminalia arjuna is an Indian tree whose bark (arjuna) is used in ayurveda as a heart tonic, for angina and heart failure. Controlled trials have not shown a clear benefit: a heart failure trial found no change in heart pumping function.
Also known as: arjuna, arjun bark, arjuna bark.
A heart failure trial used 750 mg of a water extract twice a day for 12 weeks (Maulik 2016). These are study protocols, not a recommendation.
It is sold in the US as a dietary supplement. Under the 1994 dietary supplement law (DSHEA), FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they are marketed, and the maker, not FDA, is responsible for safety and labeling.
What studies show: in a 12-week placebo-controlled trial in 100 people with chronic heart failure on standard medicines, arjuna extract did not improve the heart's pumping fraction or most other measures; only a post-hoc analysis found better walking distance and symptoms in some patients (Maulik 2016). A 2014 meta-analysis of studies in chronic stable angina found the studies poorly designed, found no significant difference from control, and said the evidence is insufficient to draw conclusions either way (Kaur 2014).
Safety: the extract was well tolerated in the heart failure trial (Maulik 2016). The sources here do not describe drug interactions.
We could not find a single published half-life or time to peak for Terminalia arjuna that applies to a supplement dose, so we do not list one. Plant extracts are mixtures of many compounds, so no single figure would describe them.
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