PHARMACOGNOSTIC INVESTIGATION ON LEAVES OF CITRUS MAXIMA (BURM.) MERR. (RUTACEAE)

Plant kingdom is one of the important sources of the natural product and food. In present era many lifesaving, nutritive chemical components are isolated from different plants due to both medicinal and economical values. In India Ayurveda provides major information about medicinal plants, but there are number of plants which is not studied totally.  Citrus maxima is a perennial shrub commonly known as Papanus, distributed through India. Present Pharmacognostic research study was performed on leaves of Citrus maxima. Macroscopic photographs of transverse sections (T.S.) of Citrus maxim leaves shown distinct presentation of arrangement of palisade cells, vascular bundles, oil globules, parenchymatous cell & trichomes. Microscopy of the leaf shows abundant anisocytic stomata both surfaces of leaf, presence of vascular bundle in xylem vessels. Thick, ovoid, rectangular epidermal cells were present. Uniserate, multicellular, thin walled, unlignified, covering trichomes were present. Spongy parenchyma cells were present. Calcium oxalate crystals were present in the parenchymatous cells. Starch grains were present except vascular bundle. Oil globules were present in leaf. Standardization of leaf was done with the help of extractive values [Water soluble extractives (18.8 % w/w), Alcohol soluble extractives (6.8 % w/w)], total ash value (4.66 % w/w), acid soluble ash value (0.316 % w/w), acid insoluble ash value (4.63 % w/w) and loss on drying (5.96 % w/w).