Pharmacognostic studies onDillenia indica Linn. I. Leaf

Abstract

Dillenia indica Linn, is widely used in the indigenous systems of medicine; the leaf and bark as an astringent, the bruised bark, externally as a cataplasm in arthritis, and the fruit juice as a cough mixture, a cooling beverage as also for toning up the nervous system. It is considered a ‘vat’ suppressant ‘pitta’ augmenting drug in Ayurveda. The paper deals with pharmacognosy of the leaf ofD. indica. The characters studied in detail include both macroscopic and microscopic characters; physical and other constants, such as stomatal index, palisade ratio, vein islet numbers, vein termination numbers, ash values, percentages of tannins, total sugars and reducing sugars. Preliminary phytochemical tests, TLC and fluorescence tests have also been carried out.