Page 70 - Pharmacognosy 2 PG303 (1)

Pharmacognosy-2 (PG303) Level 2 Clinical Pharmacy-Pharm D

Macroscopical Characters
The fruit is berry oblong conical, obtuse somewhat flattened bilocular about
10 to 25 mm long and up to 7 mm in greatest width. Capsicum is dull orange red
to brownish- red in color, superior and sometimes shows a small inconspicuous, 3-
toothed calyx and a slender straight pedicel 1 about 1 mm thick and is as long as
the fruit or somewhat longer. The pericarp is glabrous, somewhat shrunken, thin
translucent and leathery. The seeds are brownish-yellow, flat, sub-reniform,
albuminous and about 3 to 4 mm long and 2.5 to 3 mm. wide. They are slightly
pointed at the hilum and micropyle.
Seeds are 10 to 20 in each fruit either loose or attached to a thin reddish
membranous dissepiment. Capsicum has a characteristic but not powerful odor
and an extremely fiery pungent taste. The taste resides principally in the
dissepiment and is not destroyed by solution of caustic alkalis but is only destroyed
by oxidizing agents such as potassium permanganate.

Varieties

1. Sierra Leone: Rather slender, bright in color and with occasionally
attached stalk. It is most pungent.
2. Nyasaland: Resemble the former but rather brighter, free from stalk.
3. Zanzibar Duller in color more stalky, shorter, and broader. The calyx and
pedicel from 1.3-2.9 % of the drug.

Microscopical Characters
1. Pericarp:
Epicarp is formed of thick straight-walled rectangular cells often arranged in
groups of 5 to 7 in a row and showing a uniform striated cuticle, the outer tangential
and most of the radial walls are more thickened.

Mesocarp and the hypodermis are formed of several layers of thin-walled
cellulosic parenchyma containing numerous reddish oil droplets occasional
idioblasts containing Microsphenoidal or prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate and
traversed by small vascular bundles. The innermost layer of the mesocarp is
composed of thin-walled giant cells.

41