Abstract:
Cardiospermum halicacabum L. is a traditional medicinal plant. Commonly called as
Winter Cherry, Heartseed, Balloon vine, Kanphuti, Kapala-phodi, and Tejovati. It is an annual or perennial; scrambling shrub or herbaceous
climber by averages of tendrillar hooks. The drug also showed (transient) vasodepressant activity. Used in rheumatism, lumbago, skeletal fractures, nervous diseases, amenorrhea, hemorrhoids, erysipelas. The herb is used in hair oils for treating dandruff, alopecia and for darkening hair. The transverse section of stem showed aster shaped outline, slightly wavy, lenticels are present starch sheath, vascular cylinder is open, collateral, cambium bi-layered with inter-fascicular ring. Leaf lamina is dorsoventrally or partly centric, unicellular, trichome, long and pointed, uniserriate, Glandular trichome are bi- celled, short and bulbous, uniserriate. The stomata are anomocytic or rananculaceous, amphistomatic ca. average lower stomatal index 30.69+4.00, and ca. average upper stomatal index 28.70+7.07. Crud methanol extracts of whole plant were screened against the
Shigella dysenteriae ATCC 9752 shows ca. average 8+0.50 mm zone of inhibition. Gas Chromatography fractions confirmed the presence of 15 major components that revealed the presence of 9-Octadecenoic acid-(Z)-,2-hydroxy-1-(hydroxymethyl) ethyl ester at 20.0 minutes retention time having C21H40O4 molecular formula and 356 molecular weight, Phthalic acid, isobutyl octadecyl ester at 12.3 minutes retention time having C30H50O4 molecular formula and 223 molecular weight, Stigmasterol at 23.2 minutes retention time having C29H48O molecular formula and 412 molecular weight.
These studies were undertaken to standardize the plants or plant parts on the basis of morphological, anatomical and phytochemical properties. The standardization of plant material will help in the correct identification of medicinal plant part and also will be helpful in finding out odd material or adulteration, when the herbal medicines are purchased or acquired from other commercial sources in crude form.