PHARMACOGNOSTIC STUDIES ON LEAVES AND STEMS OF IPOMOEA SEPIARIA ROXB.

Ipomoea sepiaria Roxb., also known as Purple heart glory is a slender vine belonging to family Convolvulaceae. It is one among the ten sacred plants known collectively as “Dasapushpam” in Kerala. These plants are used for rejuvenating the body in the form of ‘karkidakakanji’ in the monsoon season in Kerala. Juice of the plant is used as deobstruent, diuretic, hypotensive, uterine tonic and antidote to arsenic poisoning. The present study aims at providing a detailed information of microscopic features of the leaf and stem. In cross sectional view the leaf exhibits short adaxial core, semicircular abaxial midrib and smooth lamina. The vascular bundle of the midrib is single, planoconvex and collateral. The vascular bundle includes wide, angular compact metaxylem elements and narrow circular protoxylem elements. Prominent glandular trichomes occur frequently on adaxial and abaxial epidermal layers. The glands of these trichomes are capitate type. The stem is circular, with short conical spiny ridges at certain places. It consists of intact epidermis, narrow cortex, elliptical hollow cylinder vascular tissues and central pith. Inner to the epidermis occur three layers of small radially compressed parenchyma cells mixed with sparsely distributed sclerenchyma. Secondary phloem and secondary xylem are cylindrical and elliptical in outline. Large calcium oxalate druses are sparsely distributed with pith parenchyma cells. The relevant pharmacognostic data obtained by this study will serve as a standardisation tool in identification and authentication of the plant samples.