RESUMEN
ABSTRACT The leaves extracts of some species of Bauhinia L. s.l. are consumed to treat diabetes, inflammation, pains and several disorders in traditional medicine in austral South America. Despite its wide use and commercialization, sale is not controlled, and botanical quality of samples is not always adequate because of plant misidentification and adulteration. Here, we characterized leaf vein pattern in nineteen taxa to contribute to the recognition and commercial quality control of plant material commercially available. The vein characters intercostal tertiary and quinternary vein fabric, areole development and shape, free ending veinlet branching and marginal ultimate venation allowed to distinguish the main medicinal species in the region.
RESUMEN
This study was aimed to establish an identification method between leaflets of Dimocarpus longan and leaflets of Litchi chinensis. The leaflet morphological-venation pattern (LMVP) and quantitative analysis were reliable identification method for Chinese herbs. The results showed that the main differences of leaflets of Dimocarpus lon-gan were the eucamptodromous camptodromous pinnate venation; the secondary veins gradually changed into little near margin and a few brochidodromous; the type of tertiary vein was percurrent or reticulate. The main differences of leaflets of Litchi chinensis were brochidodromous camptodromous pinnate venation; the course of the secondary veins was sinuous or zigzag, and abruptly curved then linked; the type of tertiary vein was reticulate. With three groups of key differences mentioned above, both plants can be successfully identified from each other. The accuracy of identification results (AC) was from 98.1% to 100%. The agreement rate for observation (ARO) was from 98.5% to 100%. And the Kappa value was from 0.97 to 1.00. It was concluded that the established LMVP is simple, rapid, e-conomic and reliable in the identification between leaflets of Dimoc arp us longan and leaflets of its confused herb Litchi chinensis.