Research Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry

Mushahida Parveen ¹, Jayshree Narayanan ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, Madras Medical College, Chennai, IN

Abstract

The evaluation of quality and purity of crude drugs by means of various parameters is the most important aspect of Pharmacognosy. Pharmacognostical studies of a plant helps in the proper identification of a drug and provides basis for authentication of crude drug. Erythrina stricta Roxb belongs to the family Fabaceae. It is commonly known as Indian Coral Tree. It is an armed deciduous tree. The tree is 15-20 m tall, branchlets apically stellate pubescent, basically glaberescent densely prickled. The tree is found in the plains and found up to an altitude of 1000m. It is widely distributed in the Asian and South East Asian countries like India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and China. The bark and flower are known for medicinal properties such as biliousness, rheumatism, asthma, leprosy, epilepsy, fever, antidote to poison etc. Literature survey showed that no detailed work on pharmacognostical and development of standardisation parameters have been done. The present work was carried out to perform the morpho anatomical and physicochemical evaluation of Erythrina stricta stem bark. The pharmacognostic studies were carried out in terms of organoleptic, macroscopic, microscopic and physicochemical parameters. This will help in the identification of the plant and also detect any adulterants or substandard drugs.

Keywords

Erythrina stricta Roxb, Fabaceae, Macroscopy, Microscopy, Physiochemical Constant.

Full Text

     

Thiyagarajan Varudharaj ¹, Muthusamy Periyannan ¹, Jayshree Narayanan ¹, Vijaya Bharathi Rajkishore ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, Madras Medical College, Chennai, IN

Abstract

The plant Adansonia digitata belongs to the Bombacaceae family and is generally known as African Baobab. It is a tree species native to Africa. The common English names for the Baobab include Dead-rat tree, Monkey bread tree, Upside-down tree, and Cream of Tartar tree. The Baobab is a traditional food plant in Africa, but is little known elsewhere. The tree is a massive deciduous tree up to 25 m in height and may live for up to hundred years. Every part of the Baobab tree is reported to be useful .The seeds, leaves, ischolar_mains, flowers, fruit pulp and bark of Baobab are edible. The African Baobabs fruit is 15 to 20 centimeters or 6 to 8 inches long. It contains 50% more calcium than spinach, has high anti-oxidants and has three times the vitamin C of an orange. It is sometimes called a super fruit. Adansonia digitata consists of following constituents identified from various parts which are terpenoids, flavonoids, sterols, vitamins, saponins, tannins, amino acids, carbohydrates and lipids. Baobab leaves, bark, ischolar_mains, fruit pulp, and seeds are used for multi purposes in many parts of Africa and were found to show interesting medicinal properties including anti- inflammatory, analgesic, anti-pyretic activity, anti-oxidant, anti-diarrhoea and anti-dysentery. The present article summarizes review on the plant, its phytochemistry and its pharmacological activity which have been reported.

Keywords

Adansonia digitata, Anti-Inflammatory, Anti-Oxidant, Analgesic Activity, Phytochemistry.

Full Text