Bridelia scandens Wild.– An Pharmacognstic Overview

Abstract

Abstract:

Pharmacognosy is the study of naturally occurring biological substances, principally those derived from plants that find use in medicine. The word 'pharmacognosy' is derived from the Greek 'pharmacon', 'a drug', and gignosco, 'to acquire a knowledge of'. As late as the beginning of the 20th century, the subject had developed mainly on the botanical side, being particularly concerned with the description and identification of drugs, both in the whole state and in powder, and with their history, commerce, collection, preparation and storage. The plant selected for the present study - Bridelia scandens Wild. of the family Euphorbiaceae, is yet another folklore medicinal plant which is widely used in some parts of Karnataka in treating the disease Amavata by the local tribal people and villagers.  Here an attempt is made to validate plant pharmacognostically Bridelia scandens Wild. is a large, woody, evergreen, scandent shrub with pendant branches large defluxed spines abundantly seen in western ghats. Bark grey, hard, deeply fissured; leaves elliptic, obtuse entire, thinly curvaceous; flowers greenish yellow, in dense axillary heads arranged in paniculate leafy spikes; drupes ovoid, bluish black, succulent, smooth.

Upper epidermis shows no stomata and lower epidermis shows mostly ranuculaceous stomata. Transverse section of the petiole is almost circular with a narrow groove at the upper side and wavy margin with plenty of non-glandular trichomes. T.S. of the leaf shows a dorsivertral outline; vascular bundles are circular and similar to that of dicot stem.

 Microscopic study of the leaf powder showed, trichomes, fragments of lower epidermis with stomata, sclerenchyma fibers, crystals, chloroplast, vein fragments, spiral vessels and orange-reddish to brown pigments