Pharmacognostic Study on Amaranthus Spinosus Linn.

1Hussain Zeashan*, 2Chaudhari K. Vikash, 3Yadav K. Meena and 4Chandana Venkateswara Rao
1,2,3Dept. of Pharmacy, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Pharmacy, Lucknow-227101, Uttar Pradesh, India
4Pharmacognosy and Ethnopharmacology Division, National Botanical Research Institute (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Rana Pratap Marg, Post Box No. 436, Lucknow-226 001, Uttar Pradesh, India.

A B S T R A C T
Amaranthus spinosus Linn. (Amaranthaceae) is commonly known as “Kate Wali Chaulai (Kanatabhajii)” in “Hindi”, also used as vegetable and cultivated throughout in India, Sri Lanka and many other tropical countries. In Ayurveda (Indian traditional system of medicine) the plant is used as digestible, laxative, diuretic, stomachic, antipyretic, improves the appetite, biliousness, blood diseases, burning sensation, leprosy, bronchitis, rat bite, piles, leucorrhoea while the boiled leaves and root are given to children as a laxative, emollient, poultice to abscesses, boils and burn. The leaves are used to treat rheumatic pain, stomeaachache, eczema, gastroenteritis, gall bladder inflammation, boils, abscesses, snakebites, colic menorrhagia and arthritis. The present paper highlights the macroscopic and microscopic characters of leaf, petiole, physico chemical evaluation and preliminary phytochemical studies of the plant (leaves). These observations would be of immense value in the botanical identification and standardization of the drug in crude form. This study would help distinguish the drug from its other species.
Keywords: Amaranthus spinosus, microscopy and macroscopy