Pharmacognostic characterization of Myrica esculenta leaves

ABSTRACT

Background: Myrica esculenta (Family Myricaceae) commonly known as Kaiphala or Katphala is a widelyused medicinal plant in Ayurveda. In spite of its numerous medicinal attributes, no published work isavailable till date on pharmacognostical characterization and HPTLC analysis of its leaves.Objectives: To investigate the pharmacognostical, physicochemical, and HPTLC profiles of M. esculentaleaves.Materials and methods: The measures taken for pharmacognostical characterization were organolepticstudy, macroscopy, microscopy, powder microscopy, leaf constant, fluorescence analysis, preliminaryphytochemical screening and HPTLC spectra profile.Results: Organoleptic and macroscopic studies found that leaves are lancoelate, thin, spirally arranged,dark green in color, with an astringent taste and acute apex. In transverse section, cuticularisedepidermis having polygonal cells were found. Mesophyll cells were differentiated into single layeredpalisade cells on each surface and 2e3 layered spongy parenchyma, unicellular and uniseriate hollowtrichomes, anomocytic stomata and bowl shaped vascular bundle in mid rib portion containing xylemand phloem tissues. Alkaloids, carbohydrates, flavonoids, glycosides, phenolic compounds and tanninswere found present. Analysis on the leaf constants, powder microscopy, fluorescence characteristics andphysical parameters resulted a valuable data to establish standards for the plant. HPTLC profile providesnumber of constituents present in the extracts with their respective Retention Factor (Rf).Conclusion: Present report on pharmacognostical characterization and HPTLC analysis of M. esculentaleaves provides a vital diagnostic tool for identification, authentication and development of quality parameters of the species. Data obtained by present study may be considered as standard for future studies.© 2017 Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore and World Ayurveda Foundation. Publishing Services byElsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).