Page 124 - Pharmacognosy 2 PG303 (1)
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Pharmacognosy-2 (PG303) Level 2 Clinical Pharmacy-Pharm D
Macroscopical Characters
The drug has a narcotic odor and bitter saline taste. The stem is greyish- yellow, cylindrical,
slightly compressed, finely longitudinally striated, slightly hairy and hollow. The leaves are pale
green to yellowish in color, alternate, petiolate (basal leaves) or sessile (upper leaves) and
pubescent. The lamina is oval, rhomboidal to broad elliptical, entire margin with 2- 3 large teeth
on each side and acuminate apex. The flowers are shortly stalked, having large hairy oval-
lanceolate bracts, a tubular 5 teethed hairy calyx, and a yellowish- brown corolla, zygomorphic,
funnel shaped with 5 unequal rounded lobes. The androecium is formed of 5 unequal stamens with
deep purple anthers. The ovary is superior, bicarpellary and bears numerous campylotropous
ovules on axil placenta. The fruits are small pyxis, cylindrical, bilocular, enclosed in the persistent
calyx and with or without the lid. The seeds are yellowish- grey to brown, flattened, more or less
reniform, laterally compressed with reticulate testa, and a curved embryo in an oily endosperm.
Microscopical Characters
87