ANATOMICAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL STANDARDIZATION OF Terminalia chebula AND Syzygium jambolanum: A HIGHLY USED MEDICINAL PLANT IN INDIA

Background: The fruit pulp of T. chebula and S. jambolanum seeds are used for treatment of various body ailments and have key part of complementary and alternative medicine since ancient time.

Aims: This study was designed to lay down the pharmacognostic, phytochemical and HPTLC features of the fruit pulp of T. chebula and the seed of S. jambolanum which may be useful to establish the micro-morphology, quality, purity, safety and efficacy of selected medicinal plants.

Methods: Numerous methods including macroscopic, microscopic, phytochemical and HPTLC assay were applied to describe the diagnostic features for the identification and standardization of fruit pulp of T. chebula and S. jambolanum seeds.

Results: Microscopic study of S. jambolanum reveals the presence of scattered vascular bundles, tegmen consisting brachysclereids and macrosclereids with broad and narrow lumen. Whereas T. chebula shows the fragment of epidermis with epicarp, fragments of parenchymatous cell fragment of rosette crystal. Preliminary phytochemical screening detects the different compounds viz., carbohydrates, proteins, amino acids, steroids, glycosides, alkaloids, tannins and phenolic compounds. HPTLC 3D densitogram at 270 nm shows comparative Rf value of comparable to samples with standard value and derivatization with sample as that of standard at Rf value 0.78 for gallic acid equal to T. chebula and Rf value 0.41gallic acid equal to S. jambolanum extract.

Conclusions: Various pharmacognostical characters were observed in this study can be an evidence of the effective and standardized method of HPTLC analysis which is simple, rapid, precise and accurate to further research these medicinal plants. Meanwhile, the results of this paper deal with pharmacognostical and HPTLC finger print analysis on the T. chebula and S. jambolanum in an attempt to mitigate the adulteration of the crude drug.