Natural Occurrence of Diverse Fungal Species and their Toxins in Dried Fruits of Emblica officinalis, Terminalia chebula and T. bellerica- Constituents of Triphala, an Important Ayurvedic Preparation of India

This investigation was designed to throw light on the microbial status of some herbal materials used in ‘triphala preparation’. Dried fruit samples of Phyllanthus emblica (Amla), Terminalia belerica (Baheda) and Terminalia chebula (Harada) were collected from random market sources of Jammu & Kashmir state (India). Mycological analysis was carried out for the detection and enumeration of fungi using standard media. Fungal contamination was detected from all the samples. Nearly half of the spoilage fungi belonged to Aspergillus, Penicillium and their perfect states. Four measures of diversity were considered viz., species richness (S), Shannon-Wiener’s diversity index (H'), Simpson Dominance index (Cd) and Berger Parker’s Dominance index (d') to study the diversity of recovered fungi. Samples were also investigated from mycotoxilogical point of view to identify mycotoxins associated with triphala constituents. In view of the natural fungal contamination that was detected, analyzed samples were also found to be positive for various mycotoxins including aflatoxins (B1, B2), ochratoxin A, patulin and citrinin. The high levels of these toxins in dried fruits of E. officinalis, T. bellerica and T. chebula besides reducing the effectiveness of their medicinal value, may also pose serious threat to human beings due to its hepatotoxic, nephrotoxic and cytotoxic effects. On the basis of this study, it is concluded that before making triphala preparations, it is very essential to assess the quality of these three fruits for mycobial and mycotoxin contamination. Further, emphasis has to be laid on various economical ways of decontaminating the herbal drug preparations.