MPV Vikram Singh and Vinay Kumar Prajapati

Medicinal plants are the major folk and traditional medicine for the prevention of diseases worldwide. Trianthema portulacastrum Linn. (Aizoaceae) is a small perennial weed, extensively used not only as medicine but also as vegetable for its various health benefits. The plant is reported to have analgesic, anti-pyretic and hepato-protective activity. Because of close morphological resemblance of the plant with crude drug “Punarnava”, it is usually mistaken for the same. Pharmacognosy is an indispensable aid in standardization of herbal crude drug. In the present work, to ensure authenticity and maintain the therapeutic efficacy of the plant, evaluation of certain quality control parameters for the standardization of this plant was attempted. To achieve this, pharmacognostic studies of root of this plant was done. Pharmacognostical studies include systematics, macroscopy, microscopy, fluorescence study and physico-chemical analysis were determined. The extractive values in different polar and non-polar solvents were measured. For preliminary phytochemical analysis, as primary and secondary metabolites were evaluated along with HPTLC analysis. All the standard methods were followed for different estimations. The parameters evaluated in this study will safeguard the authenticity and efficacy of crude drug and also distinguish the drug from its adulterants. The observations of studied parameters will be useful and helpful in setting diagnostic indices for identification and preparation of monograph of the plant and in differentiating root of this species from closely related species of same genus and family.

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