Pharmacognostical Profiling on the Root of Rauwolfia Serpentina

Each medicinal plant and the specific plant part used as crude drug material contain active or major chemical constituents with a characteristic profile that can be used for chemical quality control and quality assurance. So the increasing demand for herbal medicines has inevitably led to maintaining the quality and purity of herbal raw materials and finished products. WHO acknowledged that Pharmacognostical standards should be proposed as a protocol for the authentication and quality assurance of herbal drugs. The important histological features of Rauwolfia serpentina are the cork, composed of alternating layers of broad and narrow cells giving a somewhat spongy and friable exterior to the drug; secondary cortex composed of several rows of parenchymatous cells, filled with starch grains and brown resin masses; secondary xylem consisting of vessels, tracheids, xylem parenchyma and wood fibres traversed by xylem rays, and showing annual rings; secondary phloem consisting of sieve cells, companion cells and parenchymatous cells containing starch grains, rosette and prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate and occasionally some brown resin masses.