Pharmacognostic Standardization of the Leaves and Root Bark of Caesalpinia benthamiana

Abstract

Caesalpinia benthamiana (Baill.) Herend. and Zarucchi (Mezoneuron benthamianum Baill.) (Caesalpiniaceae) has been traditionally used in management of erectile dysfunction, dysentery, urethral discharges, skin diseases and wounds. Despite a long tradition of use in the treatment of various ailments, no systematic pharmacognostic standardization work has been carried out on C. benthamiana. One major obstacle in the systematic exploration of the plant may be the non-availability of authentic plant material. In the present investigation, various pharmacognostic standards for the plant have been generated including the macro and micro morphological studies, one of the WHO accepted parameters for identification of medicinal plants by way of establishing the salient diagnostic characters and constants. This was carried out on the leaves and root bark of C. benthamiana.The leaves were bipinnate, oblong, with entire margin. The apex was obtuse, and possessed a symmetric base and reticulates venation. The terminal leaves were however obovate in shape. Actinocytic and paracytic types of stomata were observed. Trichomes were uniseriate and unicellular and epidermal cells were found to be wavy. Surface data analysis revealed the stomatal index to be 1.69% to 11.11% for the upper surface and 16.94% to 28.52% for the lower surface. Veinislet number was recorded as 12.5 to 16.5 whilst the veinlet termination number was 22.25 to 35 with palisade ratio ranging between 11.25 and 13.75. The water- soluble extractive value was 9.2% and 3.7% for the leaves and root bark respectively. Whilst the alcohol-soluble extractive value for the leaves was found to be 6.7% and 2.6% for the root bark. The total ash value determinations were observed to be 5.6% for the leaves and 7.9% for the root bark. The result of this study may be useful in setting diagnostic indices for the identification and preparation of a monograph for the plant.