Pharmacognostic and Physico-Chemical Characterization of Different Parts of Skimmia anquetilia: A Perspective for the Development of Quality Control

Skimmia anquetilia (Family: Rutaceae) is an aromatic and medicinal plant distributed in west Himalaya. It is widely used in conventional system of medicine. S. anquetilia is used to treat swellings, rheumatism, heal wounds, as an antidote to snake bite and scorpion bite and also in the treatment of fever, cold and headache. Inspite of its tremendous medicinal value, only less information is available on pharmacognostic characterization of S. anquetilia. The present work deals with comparative pharmacognostical and physico-chemical parameters of different parts of S. anquetilia. Plant material was collected from the natural site, fragmented into different parts, shade dried and powdered. The powdered materials were analyzed for various parameters which include organoleptic study, macroscopy, anatomy, powder microscopy, foreign matter analysis, ash values, loss on drying, swelling index, foaming index, pH values, fluorescence analysis and extractive yield. Organoleptic and macroscopic studies revealed that S. anquetilia is a herbaceous perennial with thick and branched root; oblanceolate, simple and coriaceous leaves; solid and glabrous stem; terminal paniculate inflorescence and red and ovoid fruits. Anatomical studies revealed some unique feature such as calcium oxalate crystals in leaves, oil globules in leaves, stem and root The powder microscopy revealed some distinctive characteristics like different trichomes and lignified spiral and pitted vessels in leaf; oil globules, starch granules and lignified pitted vessels in stem; reticulate parenchyma, lignified pitted vessels and prismatic calcium oxalate crystals in root; unicellular trichomes and spherical pollen grains in flowers; oil globules in testa of fruit. Analysis on the pharmacognostic parameters of different parts of S. anquetilia resulted in a valuable data to establish standards for the plant. The present work is the first attempt to provide a comprehensive report on the quality control and standardization parameters of different parts of S. anquetilia, thereby, acting as a platform for correct identification, authentication and development of quality control parameters of the species. Data obtained may be used a standard for future studies.