ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC STUDIES OF SOME ANTICANCER PLANTS POLLEN GRAINS

Abstract

Pollen is appropriately referred by some as Golden dust extremely valuable on account of their tremendous applications in science, industries and public health. No other plant part even though extremely tiny in size is packed with so much information and power. Similar to other plant parts, pollen characters are so varied that the classification system of plants can be built up entirely on the basis of pollen morphology.Palynology is the distinct branch of biology that deals with the dispersed microscopic tiny living and fossil entities including pollen grains, spores, algal and fungal fragments and others. An important aspect of Palynology is the Pollen morphology. The importance of Palynology in taxonomic and phylogenetic consideration of plants is well known. The changes occurring through hybridization and years of cultivation are reflected in pollen morphology. The scope and interest in the study of pollen morphology have widened with the advent of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and with regards to unipalynous taxa particularly the understanding of finer morphology is of fundamental importance. SEM gives a correct understanding of exine surface as the electron photographs of the surface replica of the exine provides the exact picture of the ornamentation pattern. The variation in the pollen morphological characters helps in the classification of plant taxa and their assessment of their phylogenetic relationship. In the present investigation, the pollen morphological studies were carried out of some ethnomedicinal plants like Catharanthus roseus, Allamanda cathartica, Datura metel, Brassica juncea, Raphanus sativus and Cleome viscosa pollen grains by Scanning electron microscopy. All that they possess anticancer characteristics in common.