Sk Md Ismail Al Amin and Asis Kumar Nandi
Vidyasagar University, India
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: Nat Prod Chem Res
Senna occidentalis (L) Link, of the family Caesalpiniaceae and locally known as �??Kalkasundha�?? in India is a medicinal plant of multifarious uses. The leaf of the plant considered being medicinally important and it claims to cure several diseases in traditional system mentioned in Ayurveda along with other earlier records suggesting its use as analgesic, antipyretic drug to treat colitis, constipation, dysentery, jaundice, cholera, leprosy and many others. In this context the detailed pharmacognostic study of the leaf has been carried out with the aim to get pharmaceutical information for better identification of the species, even when plant parts are pounded to powder form. The parameters selected were microscopical studies; proximate analysis, fluorescence analysis and preliminary phytochemical screening. Quantitative microscopic parameters include the stomatal index, palisade ratio and vein-islet number considered as distinguishing features. Powder microscopy of the drug, the behavior of the powdered drug with different chemical reagents and its fluorescence analysis are also observed to characterize the crude drug which helped to roughly identify the chemical nature of the constituents present in the drug. The proximate analysis gave the limits for the parameters performed and fluroscence analysis shows presence of glysoside, starch and low amount of cardiac glycoside, saponin and tannin. This information also proves to be invaluable as it comes to use in detecting spurious materials, mixed as an adulterant from the original ones. The present study displays various characteristics of the species, the combination of which will be unique for it and of pharmacognostic significance.
Sk Md Ismail Al Amin is currently working as SRF (DST INSPIRE Fellow) in Department of Botany & Forestry, Vidyasagar University under the guidance of Dr Asis Kumar Nandi.
Email: midismail@gmail.com
