Abstract

ETHNOPHARMACOGNOSY OF STEMONA TUBEROSA LOUR., A POTENTIAL MEDICINAL PLANT SPECIES OF ARUNACHAL PRADESH, INDIA

Pankaj Bharali, Ashish Paul, Priyanka Dutta, Gaottham Gogoi, Arup Kumar Das and Ananta Madhab Baruah

ABSTRACT

Plants and plant products are playing an imperative role as medicine since the early age. Still today, most of the rural people are relying on natural resources and traditional medicinal system for their day to day life. Arunachal Pradesh is well known for its rich biological as well as cultural diversity. The local peoples used variety of aromatic and medicinal plant species for the treatment of various ailments. Present study deals with preliminary ethnopharmacognosy of Stemona tuberosa, a potential medicinal plant species of Arunachal Pradesh. Tuberous roots extract is used as an antilice agent for human being as well as animals and fish poison. Powder of the roots is being used as a preservative and mosquito repellent agent. Phytochemical investigation revealed the presence of alkaloids, carbohydrates and glycosides, phenolic compounds, while small amount of saponin, flavanoids, gum mucilage, and proteins. Phytochemical screening of Stemona tuberosa showed that the roots are rich in alkaloids, glycosides as well as other secondary metabolites like as flavanoids, gums, saponin etc. which indicate that the species has high medicinal potential. Among the solvents ethanol, water, petroleum ether and acetone water extract shows high positive results. Therefore, the studied species may be considered as a potential source of useful drugs. Pharmacognosy is mainly concerned with naturally occurring substances having a medicinal action. Morphological and anatomical characters play a vital role in crude drug standardization. The macroscopic and microscopic characters of the leaf stem and roots were included in the main pharmacognostic study. Further studies have already been undertaken to isolate, identify, characterize and elucidate the structure of bioactive compounds.

Keywords: Arunachal Pradesh, medicinal plant, pharmacognosy, phytochemical screening, Stemona tuberosa,