Microscopic and phytochemical techniques as a tool for authentication of herbal drug chiraita: Swertia cordata (G. Don) C.B. Clarke

Abstract

Swertia cordata (G. Don) C.B. Clarke is one of the potential medicinal plants extensively used in eastern traditional medicine such as Unani, Ayurveda, Siddha, and in traditional Tibetan and Chinese medicine. S. paniculata is the common adulterant of S. cordata at herbal shops and markets but S. paniculata is also used in number of herbal formulations. The present study was conducted to use microscopic, pharmacognostic, and phytochemical techniques as a tool for the authentication of herbal drug chiraita (S. cordata). In herbal markets, mixing, adulteration, and use of spurious materials as substitute have become a major concern for herbal practitioners, local user, and industry for reasons of safety and efficacy. Therefore, authentication of medicinal plants is of utmost importance at each level of drug research. In the present study, anatomical features of two species showed a great diversity, as irregular epidermal cells and nonglandular, unicellular trichomes were found in S. cordata while in S. paniculata epidermal cells were hexagonal in shape and trichomes were A-shaped. Antioxidant activity of two species showed a great variation where IC 50 value recorded for S. cordata was 208 μg/mL, while for S. paniculata IC 50 was 624 μg/mL. The study can serve as an important source of information to achieve the authenticity and to evaluate the quality and purity of the plant material in accordance to WHO guidelines. As this species is greatly exploited, so conservation is highly recommended. K E Y W O R D S microscopy, phytochemical technique, SEM, standardization, Swertia cordata

Chemo‐taxonomic and biological potential of highly therapeutic plant Pedicularis groenlandica Retz. using multiple microscopic techniques

“…Different researchers in many studies had introduced various techniques for the identification of original drug obtained from plants but all these techniques were expensive. Therefore, researchers are paying attention to less expansive techniques, among them palynological and taxonomic techniques were the most simple, useful and inexpensive (Ali et al, 2020, 2021; Ashfaq et al, 2020; Bahadur et al, 2018, 2020; Gul et al, 2019, 2021; Ishtiaq et al, 2020; Rashid et al, 2019; Sufyan et al, 2018). Different qualitative and quantitative morphological characteristics of various species are published in different floras.…”

Pollen morphology of selected melliferous plants and its taxonomic implications using microscopy

“…In the last several years, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has had a major impact on various disciplines of biological study (Khan et al, 2018; Rahman et al, 2019; Ullah, Ahmad, et al, 2019; Ullah, Ahmad, Jabeen, et al, 2021; Ullah, Ahmad, Zafar, et al, 2021; Ullah, Nasar Shah, et al, 2019; Ullah, Zafar, Ahmad, et al, 2021; Ullah, Zaman, et al, 2019). Furthermore, improved microscopy techniques can not only play an important role in this discipline by examining the ultrastructure of plant specimens (Alam et al, 2019; Kalsoom et al, 2019; Lubna et al, 2019; Rashid, Ahmad, et al, 2019; Rashid, Zafar, et al, 2019) but also in related filed of biological sciences (Ahmad et al, 2018; Shaheen et al, 2018; Rashid et al, 2018).…”

“…The pollen surface has been greatly enhanced attributable to scanning electron microscopy (Akhtar et al, 2021; Aziz et al, 2022; Niazi et al, 2021; Rahman et al, 2019; Rozina Ahmad, Khan, et al, 2021; Rozina Ahmad, Zafar, et al, 2021). Scanning microscopy pollen research is also utilized to generate new terminology for defining pollen ornamentation, a statistical approach to pollen sculpturing, and even data analysis of the exine (Ijaz et al, 2022; Kanwal et al, 2022; Rashid, Ahmad, et al, 2019; Rashid, Zafar, et al, 2019; Hussain et al, 2021; Shah et al, 2021; Shahzad et al, 2021; Waheed et al, 2021; Yousaf et al, 2021).…”