Ayurvedic hair care · Single herb
Amla
Emblica officinalis — Indian gooseberry, amalaki
The one herb here that changes the colour.
Radico Organic Amla Fruit Powder is milled Emblica officinalis fruit, grown on our own certified organic farms. Of the eight single herbs we make, seven are colour-neutral — you can add them to any shade and nothing shifts. Amla is the exception. It is naturally acidic, and acidity cools and deepens a henna result. Add it yourself and the colour you get will not be the colour on the box.
That is not a warning so much as the reason it exists in our range. Amla is in 23 of our 24 shades, more than any other herb, precisely because that shift is something we want and have measured into the recipe.
What each herb is for
Radico makes eight single herbs you can buy on their own. They are not variations on one another — they do three different jobs. (Our colour formulas draw on a wider set, including henna, indigo and manjistha.)
Cleanse
Used in place of shampoo. Both foam gently from natural saponins.
Scalp and roots
Worked into the scalp with the fingertips, where hair begins.
Strand
Drawn through the lengths, where the hair itself needs help.
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Methi
Trigonella foenum-graecum
Dry, brittle strands
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Amla
Emblica officinalis
Dullness — and it cools henna
You are here
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Colorless henna
Cassia obovata
Body and gloss, near-neutral
Two of the eight touch colour, and this is one of them. Amla cools and deepens a henna result — which is exactly why it is in 23 of our 24 shades, as a deliberate part of the recipe. Add it yourself and it will shift a henna result cooler. Colorless henna is named for what it does not do, but a long application can leave a faint golden cast on white or very light hair. The other six are colour‑neutral and can go into any Radico shade without changing it.
- Botanical name
- Emblica officinalis, syn. Phyllanthus emblica
- Plant family
- Phyllanthaceae
- Part used
- Fruit — the only one of our eight that is not a leaf, seed or pod
- Character
- Naturally acidic. This is the property that does the work
- Acts on
- The strand, and the tone of a plant colour
- Effect on colour
- Cools and deepens a henna result. It is the only one of our eight that does
- In Radico’s shades
- In 23 of the 24 — more than any other herb. The one without it is Violet
- Mixing with colour
- Possible, but it will change the result. See below
Composition
What is actually in amla
Radico Organic Amla Fruit Powder has one ingredient: milled Emblica officinalis fruit, grown and processed on our own certified organic farms. Nothing is added — no fillers, no synthetic preservatives, no fragrance.
Amla is not a one-compound herb. Three are worth naming, and they are not equally specific to it.
Characteristic of amla
Emblicanin A
An ellagitannin
- Formula
- C34H22O22
- Mol. weight
- 782.5 g/mol
- PubChem CID
- 119058016
Characteristic of amla
Emblicanin B
An ellagitannin, paired with A
- Formula
- C34H20O22
- Mol. weight
- 780.5 g/mol
- CAS number
- 180465-45-6
- PubChem CID
- 119058017
Present, but not unique
Gallic acid
A phenolic acid
- Formula
- C7H6O5
- Mol. weight
- 170.12 g/mol
- CAS number
- 149-91-7
- PubChem CID
- 370
The distinction matters. Emblicanins A and B are the compounds researchers use to identify Emblica officinalis material, and they occur as a pair: B is A with two hydrogens removed — C34H22O22 against C34H20O22, a difference of two in the molecular weight. It is the same skeleton after oxidation, which is why the two structures above look so alike. Gallic acid is genuinely present and part of what makes amla acidic, but it turns up in a great many plants — naming it tells you far less about what is in the pouch. We list all three, and we say which is which.
A note on vitamin C
Amla is widely described as rich in vitamin C, and the fruit is. That figure comes from nutritional analysis — it describes what amla does when eaten.
What ascorbic acid does on a scalp, applied as a water paste and rinsed off within the hour, is a different question, and not one we have found answered in the literature. We would rather not carry a number across from one context to another and let it imply something it was never measuring.
What we can tell you is that amla is acidic, and that its acidity is what does the visible work here.
Why acidity changes a henna result
This is the part worth understanding, because it explains both what amla does in our shades and what happens if you add it yourself.
Henna colours through lawsone, a molecule that binds to the keratin in hair and reads as copper-red. How that red is perceived depends partly on the conditions it develops in. Acidity holds it back from the brightest, most orange end of its range, so a henna result mixed with an acidic ingredient reads cooler and deeper than the same henna would on its own.
This is not a small effect. It is the difference between a copper that reads as orange and one that reads as auburn, and it is the reason amla is in 23 of our 24 shades. The proportion in each recipe is measured for the tone that shade is meant to give.
Add amla to a mix yourself and you are moving that dial. There is nothing wrong with doing so — people have done it for a very long time, and it is the standard way to cool a henna that came out too bright. But it is worth knowing that you are changing the recipe rather than adding a neutral conditioner.
What the research has examined — and what it has not
Most published work on Emblica officinalis concerns oral use. The emblicanins have been studied in cell and animal models for antioxidant activity, and the fruit’s nutritional profile has been characterised in detail. Very little of that is about hair.
Here is the honest position. We have not found published work establishing what milled amla fruit does when applied to a human scalp as a water paste. We are not claiming it treats any scalp or hair condition, and in the United States a cosmetic may not make that claim.
The one effect we do describe — that amla shifts a plant colour cooler — is not a health claim. It is a colour outcome we measure into every recipe, and one you can see for yourself in a strand test.
Radico Organic Amla Fruit Powder is a cosmetic product for external use on hair and scalp. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition. Emblica officinalis belongs to the Phyllanthaceae family. Patch test on the inner forearm 48 hours before a full application, and stop use if irritation develops.
In practice
What using amla looks like
Amla is a powder you mix with warm water into a paste. It can be used on its own as a strand treatment, or added to a colour mix — and those two uses call for different amounts and different thinking.
- Time on the hair30–45 minutesLonger than 60 adds nothing
- How often1–3 times a weekIt does not build up on the strand
- Effect on colourCools hennaThe only one of our eight that does
On its own
Amla is a strand herb rather than a scalp herb, so most people take it through the lengths rather than working it into the roots.
Scalp and roots only
The smaller application
- Powder
- 5–8 g (about ¼ oz)
- Warm water
- 15–30 ml (½–1 fl oz)
- Per 100 g pouch
- 13–20 applications
Amounts shown for short to shoulder-length hair. Long or very thick hair needs 10–16 g.
Full-length treatment
Scalp through to the ends
- Powder
- 30 g (1 oz)
- Warm water
- 90–120 ml (3–4 fl oz)
- Per 100 g pouch
- About 3 treatments
Amounts shown for shoulder-length hair. This is the usual way to use amla on its own.
Add the water at three to four times the powder’s weight in millilitres. Where you land inside that range changes how the paste behaves.
Nearer 4× — looser
Spreads under the fingertips and reaches between sections without dragging. Better when you are working at the roots.
Nearer 3× — firmer
Stays where you put it. At the looser end the paste can drip once it is on the lengths, so keep closer to three for a full-length treatment.
Weigh the powder rather than spooning it — a spoonful of milled fruit can vary by as much as a third depending on the spoon and how it is scooped. Stir until there are no lumps, let the paste stand 5 minutes, and check again; the powder keeps absorbing water after the first mix.
The method
- Weigh and mix to a thick yogurt consistency that holds on the brush without dripping.
- Apply through the lengths, working from the mid-shaft down, then bring what is left up to the roots if you want it there.
- Leave on 30–45 minutes under a shower cap so the paste stays damp. A dried-out paste stops working — it is the water that keeps the plant compounds in contact with the hair. Longer than 60 minutes adds nothing.
- Rinse thoroughly with warm water. Shampoo is optional.
Adding amla to a colour
This is where amla differs from every other single herb we make. It will change the result. That is what it is for, and it is worth doing deliberately rather than by accident.
What it does
- Cools a henna result. A copper that was reading orange moves toward auburn.
- Deepens it slightly. The same shade reads a little darker and less bright.
- Does not lighten, and does not cover more gray. Adding amla will not solve either of those.
How much
There is no single correct ratio, because it depends on how far you want to move the tone and how much henna is in the shade to begin with. Small amounts do more than people expect.
If you are starting out, add amla at around a tenth of the colour powder by weight — roughly 3 g of amla to 30 g of a shade — and strand test before committing to the whole head. You can always add more next time; you cannot take the coolness back out once the colour is on.
Two things to keep in mind. Amla is already in 23 of our 24 shades, in a proportion measured for the tone that shade is meant to give — so if you are colouring with Radico, you are adjusting a recipe that already contains it. And on an indigo-containing shade, the effect is less predictable than on henna alone, because you are altering the conditions two pigments are developing in rather than one.
Strand test first. Cut a small piece from underneath, apply your mix there, and wait the full development time before you judge it. This is the one step worth not skipping with amla.
The rest of the range
Amla is one of eight single herbs Radico makes for hair — and the only one that changes a colour result.
See all Ayurvedic hair care Organic Amla Fruit Powder
Single ingredient in every pouch. No fillers, no fragrance, no synthetic preservatives.