Pharmacognostic studies of Shorea tumbuggaia roxb. - A globally threatened species

Abstract

Introduction: Since all parts of Shorea tumbuggaia an endemic endangered medicinal plant species using as a folklore claims has therapeutic qualities. To ensure reproducible quality of plant herbal products, proper control of starting material is utmost essential thus in recent years there has been an emphasis in standardization of medicinal plants of therapeutic potential. Methods: The present study has laid down a set of macroscopic, microscopic and fluorescence features of stem, stembark and leaf has been carried out by simple and compound microscopes; and spectro flourometer. Results: The salient anatomical features of the Shorea tumbuggaia are the stem is circular with shallow wide furrows, well defined medullary resin canals connected by phloem rays from cortical region to medulla. The stem bark revealed that major source for various secondary metabolites like phenols, flavonoids, tannins, anthocyanins, triterpenoids when compared to the stem and leaf. The leaf consisting special type of star shaped sclereid cells on abaxial surface. Paracytic stomata are distributed on abaxial side only. Fan shaped sphaerites cells consisting 4 digits are distributed towards lower side. All of the histochemical reactions showed that the presence of tannins, starch and phenols in leaf and cotyledons. The chemical potency of stem bark powder proved at excitation at 396 nm and emitted photons at 475 nm. Conclusions: With this back drop, it becomes extremely important to make an effort towards standardization of the plant material to be used as medicine and help in identification and authentification of the plant material in the drug.