@article {806, title = {A Pharmacognosy Approach to the Botanical Source of a Cinnamon Fruit Traded as N{\={a}}gake{\'s}ara and Sirunagappu in Raw Drug Markets}, journal = {Pharmacognosy Journal}, volume = {11}, year = {2019}, month = {January 2019}, pages = {81-87}, type = {Original Article}, chapter = {81}, abstract = {

Background: Adulteration and substitution of Nagakesara is a well-established fact in the medicinal plant literature though it is referred by the authors of important Ayurvedic texts to cure piles, dysentery, hiccup etc. The botanical identities of controversial sources of Nagakesara are flowers of Mesua ferrea L. and Ochrocarpus longifolius Benth. and Hook. f., Calophyllum inophyllum L., Dillenia pentagyna Roxb. and perchance their allied species. Though immature fruits of some Cinnamomum species are also reported to be sold as Nagakesara/Sirunagappu in the crude drug markets there are no pharmacognostic studies available for the identification and analysis of this crude drug. Materials and Methods: In this study, marketed Nagakesara/ Sirunagappu samples were procured from Chennai raw drug market and analyzed as per the standard methodologies for pharmacognostic studies. Results: Macro-microscopical characters and chemical identity of the samples of immature fruits were established to derive set of characters for the identification of this marketed material. The proposed results would help in identification of this crude drug while used as substitute drug for the official source. Conclusion: The botanical Nagakesara or Sirunagappu is neither stamen nor flower, but it is fruit of Cinnamomum species. As Western Ghats is habitat for several similar looking species of Cinnamomum, there is necessity to study the pharmacognostical characters of all species of Cinnamomum before concluding the botanical source of this ambiguous raw drug of Ayurveda and Siddha.

}, keywords = {HPTLC, Lauraceae, Market substitute, Quality standards, Siddha, ulteration}, doi = {10.5530/pj.2019.1.15}, author = {Chinnapillai Arunachalam and Balasundaram Maheshwari and Govindarajan Nartunai and Raju Ilavarasan and Koppala Narayana Sunil Kumar and Parameswaran Sathiyarajeswaran} } @article {397, title = {Phytochemical and Quality Assessment of Acacia nilotica Linn and Acacia leucophloea willd Flowers}, journal = {Pharmacognosy Journal}, volume = {9}, year = {2017}, month = {September 2017}, pages = {721-724}, type = {Original Article}, chapter = {721}, abstract = {

Objective: The quality criteria for herbal drugs are based on a clear scientific definition of the raw material. Even though global herbal resources have a great potential as natural drugs and are of great commercial importance, they are very often procured and processed without any scientific evaluation, and launched onto the market without any mandatory safety and toxicology studies. On that basis, an attempt was made on a well-known herbal drug A.nilotica flower and A.leucophloea flower by evaluation of phytochemical and toxicological parameters like heavy metals, aflatoxins, total microbial load and pesticide residues. Method: The procedures recommended in AOAC, ASTA were followed to determine analysis of heavy metals, aflatoxins, microbial load and pesticide residues. Thin layer chromatographic technique was used to separate the chemical compounds present in the drug. Result and Conclusion: Results obtained during this experiment revealed that heavy metals, aflatoxins, total microbial load and pesticidal residues were variable but found within the prescribed limits. Phytochemical evaluation revealed that the catechin phytoconstituents is absent in A.leucophloea flowers when compared with A.nilotica flowers. Hence, there is an urgent need for mandatory evaluation of these parameters in every crude drug before further processing to ensure safety and efficacy of Indian medicinal plants for better acceptance at International platform. The study revealed specific identities for the particular crude drug which will be useful in identification and control to adulterations of the raw drug.

}, keywords = {A. leucophloea, A. nilotica flowers, Phytochemical, TLC and Catechin}, doi = {10.5530/pj.2017.6.113}, url = {http://fulltxt.org/article/166}, author = {Raju Ilavarasan and Leela Vadivelu} }