Albizia lebbeck Benth., commonly known as Shirisha in Sanskrit is a medium to large tree belonging to the family Fabaceae. In Ayurveda, it is used in many disease conditions like Hicca (Hiccup), Kasa (cough), Shwasa (Bronchial Asthma), Visarpa (Erysipelas) and as Vishaghna (anti-poisonous) etc. Till date, no pharmacognostical reports have been available on its Pod. Transverse section of Pod and its powder, histochemical tests and preliminary physicochemical investigations were done. Results showed simple and warty trichomes, prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate, spiral vessels from vascular bundle, simple and compound starch grains with hilum, pollen grain, epidermal cells and thin wall parenchyma cells with brown tannin fragments etc. Preliminary physicochemical analysis revealed loss on drying (8.42% w/w), ash value (5.20% w/w), acid insoluble ash (0.428% w/w), alcohol soluble extractive (47.92% w/w), and water soluble extractive (43.2% w/w) and tannin (1.674% w/v). These observations can be considered as standard in future studies.
Key words: Albizia lebbeck Benth., Pharmacognosy, Pod, Shirisha.
|
