Abstract

TRICHOMES AS BIOMARKERS FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF A FEW MEDICINAL PLANTS OF THE FAMILY MALVACEAE

Sonal Chavan, Anamika Singh and Mammen Daniel*

ABSTRACT

In the present work 19 medicinal plants belonging to the family Malvaceae have been subjected to an intensive study on their micromorphological characters such as stellate trichomes and glands present in leaves and other vegetative parts to find out their utility as biomarkers in raw materials. The hairs offered a variety of structures such as unicellular, bicellular, typical stellate hairs with 3 to 9 arms and flat discs. Substantial variations were found in number of arms, thickness of walls and lumen, base of stellate hair, its pitting and the cells of epidermis surrounding the hairs. The glands also varied from unicellular to multicellular flask shaped structures. Based on these characters a key to identify all the 19 plants were prepared. The utility of these characters as biomarkers in pharmacognosy and in taxonomy is discussed.

Keywords: Micromorphological characters, Trichomes, Stellate hairs, Glands, Medicinals, Malvaceae. Bala.