Pharmacognostic Study of Aerial Parts of Celosia argentea Linn. Devhare SV1, Nirmal SA1,*, Rub RA2, Dighe NS3, Pattan SR3, Mandal Subhash C4, Gaikwad PM5 1Department of Pharmacognosy, Pravara Rural College of Pharmacy, Pravaranagar, Maharashtra, India 2Department of Pharmacognosy, Allana College of Pharmacy, Pune, Maharashtra, India 3Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pravara Rural College of Pharmacy, Pravaranagar, Maharashtra India 4Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy Research Laboratory Depatment of Pharmaceutical Technology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India 5Department of Pharmacoloy, PDVVP College Of Pharmacy, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India *Corresponding Author: Mr. S. A. Nirmal, Department of Pharmacognosy, Pravara Rural College of Pharmacy, Pravaranagar, M.S., India. Email: nirmalsunil@rediffmail.com
Online published on 22 March, 2013. Abstract Celosia argentea Linn (Amaranthaceae) grows as a weed during rainy season throughout India and other tropical regions of the world such as Sri Lanka, South Asia, Africa and America. It is used traditionally for the treatment of jaundice, gonorrhea, inflammations, wounds, itching, diarrhea, blood diseases, mouth sores, and fever. It is also having an antipyretic, antidiabetic, antibacterial, diuretic, hepatoprotective, antimicrobial, and antimetastatic properties. Objective of present work is to standardize the aerial parts by morphology, microscopy and various physical constants. The morphology, microscopy, determination of various physical constants viz. ash values, extractive values, moisture content and phytochemical screening were performed. Morphological study reveals that the leaf is green, linear-lanceolate, ovate, acute and entire; the stem is yellowish green, erect, simple with grooved branches, flowers are first pinkish afterward glistering white in color, seeds are black, polished and shining. Microscopically leaf shows presence of chollenchyma, 3–4 vascular bundles at the center, palisade cells on upper side only; and microscopically stem shows the presence of xylem vessel, cortex, vascular bundles and pith. Total ash, acid insoluble ash, water soluble ash and sulphated ash of aerial parts was found to be 14.5% w/w, 2.0% w/w, 3.0% w/w and 20.0%w/w respectively. Water-soluble and alcohol soluble extractive values of aerial parts were found to be 16.2% w/w, 6.0%w/w respectively. Moisture content of aerial parts was found to be 11.0% w/w. Top |