PHARMACOGNOSTICAL STUDIES ON LEAVES OF MARSILEA MINUTA LINN.

Abstract

Plants have been the basis of many traditional medicines throughout the world for thousands of years and continue to provide new remedies to mankind and one of the richest sources of many bioactive compounds. Marsilea minuta Linn (Marsileaceae) found at the edges of ponds and irrigation channels and as a weed in wet rice fields and it is found throughout India. The usefulness of this plant is described in many folk books including Ayurvedic Pharmacopeia. But no reports are available on morph anatomy due to this importance Marsilea minuta (L) leaves was analyzed for pharmacognostical studies. The study reveals the leaves with large petiole terminating in to four leaflets, leaflets obovate with entire or dentate margins. The transverse section of leaves shows presence of epidermis, spongy parenchyma cells and a cluster of wide, angular, thick, walled xylem elements and small nest of phloem elements, vascular strand is placed in the median part of the lamina, spongy and palisade mesophyll tissue and paracytic stomata. Physico-chemical parameters such as moisture content, total ash, acid insoluble ash, water soluble ash, sulphated ash and alcohol soluble extractive value, water soluble extractive value are presented. The results of the study could be useful in setting some diagnostic indices for the identification and preparation of a monograph of the plant.