Pharmacognostical Analysis of the Leaves and Roots of Labisia Pumila(Blume) Fern.-vill. Var. Pumila

摘要

Labisia pumila (Blume) Fern.-Vill. (Primulaceae) is locally known as kacip fatimah. There are eight varieties of L. pumila, viz.:var. alata, var. discoplacenta, var. malintangensis, var. lanceolata, var. neriifolia, var. gladiata, var. pumila and var.sessilifolia. Based on the WHO methods, a pharmacognostical study was carried out on the leaves and roots of L. pumila(Blume) Fern.-Vill. var. pumila for standardisation of the raw materials. The slightly odoured powdered leaves and roots aredark green and brown, respectively. Microscopical features such as parenchyma cells, rhomboidal calcium oxalate crystals,peltate trichome, starch grains, fibres and spiral vessels were observed in both samples. However, in addition, the leaves hadparacytic stomata, polygonal shape of epidermal cell with cicatrices and unicellular covering trichomes, and the roots had corkcells and tracheids. Treatment with concentrated hydrochloric acid gave distinctly different colours, i.e. brown and light yellow,for the leaves and the roots, respectively. Reasonable thin layer chromatographic profiles of the ethanol (96%) extracts wereobtained using silica gel with chloroform-methanol (9:1) and detection with various techniques. Loss on drying values of theroots (10.00-12.70%) were higher than the leaves (9.42-10.40%). Ethanol-soluble extractives cold and hot methods wereobtained for the leaves as 5.71-13.08% and 8.13-10.52%, and that for the roots as 2.52-12.78% and 3.90-7.76%, respectively.While cold and hot water-soluble extractives were 10.34-17.90% and 12.49-14.35% for the leaves, and 7.82-14.06% and 12.52-13.66% for the roots, respectively. In conclusion, the leaves and roots of L. pumila var. pumila had characteristically differentpharmacognostic physico-chemical properties.