Background: Medicine has evolved after a lot of trial and error practices. Ayurveda is a life science which is meant for well-being of all living creature. The medicinal importance of wide range of plants has been recorded in Ayurveda, but some plants which are found later or exotic are not mentioned in Ayurveda, they are named as Anukta which means untold. Ethnobotany is the branch of botany which deals with the study of relationship between people and plants. Passiflora foetida Linn. is an extra pharmacopeial drug in Ayurveda, which is used by folklore and traditional healers for various ailments like hysteria, skin disease, asthma, headache, for poisonous bites, digestive complaints etc. Methodology: Pharmacognostic, physico-chemical, preliminary phytochemical study and HPTLC studies were carried out following standard procedures mentioned in Pharmacopoeias. Results: Pharmacognostic study revealed macromicroscopic features of the plant. Physicochemical studies gave information about the moisture content, total ash, acid insoluble ash, water soluble ash, alcohol soluble extractive and water soluble extractive. Preliminary phytochemical evaluation of alcoholic extract revealed the presence of phenols, alkaloids and resins. HPTLC study revealed the fingerprint of extract of the plant sample. Conclusion: The results obtained from the studies will help in the standardisation of the plant material.

Hemidesmus indicus (L.) R. Br. (Apocynaceae) root is extensively used in Indian traditional systems due to its biological activities. Decalepis hemiltonii Wight & Arn. is another member from the same family resembling H. indicus and is adulterated in the herbal market. Aim of the study was to compare and evaluate the distinguishing features based on macroscopy, microscopy, powder microscopy, molecular differences in the genomic DNA by RAPD, physiochemical, phytochemical screening, TLC and HPTLC fingerprint profiling of successive extracts. Microscopically cork, cortex, phloem, xylem, medullary rays and pith; powder microscopically size and shape of the cork cells, fibre, fibre tracheids, vessels, xylem parenchyma cells were different from each other. Polymorphism (75.4 %) was found in eight primers out of 16 primers analyzed. The water soluble extractive and the hexane soluble extractive of D. hamiltonii was higher than H. indicus. Tannins, flavonoids, steroids and coumarins were present only in H. indicus and absent in D. hamiltonii. After derivatization, spots at Rf 0.88 (hexane extract), 0.81 (chloroform extract) and 0.55 (ethanol extract) in H. indicus; spots at Rf 0.22, 0.45 (chloroform extract), 0.19, 0.35, 0.58, 0.59 (ethanol extract) in D. hamiltonii were observed. This study will be helpful to find out adulteration of D. hemiltonii in place of H. indicus sold in the crude drug market and in herbal formulations.

The present work aims to study powder microscopy, physicochemical and high-performance thin-layer chromatography photo documentation and fingerprint profiles of a Siddha drug, Rattha Piththathirku Kudinir Chooranam (RPK). The raw drugs were collected, authenticated and the RPK was prepared. Then the drug was investigated for powder microscopic characters, physicochemical parameters, Thin Layer Chromatographic photo documentation (TLC), High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatographic (HPTLC) fingerprint profiles of successive n-hexane, successive chloroform, successive ethanol and hydro alcohol (1:1) extracts. The successive and hydro alcohol extracts of the drug displayed distinct TLC spots and HPTLC peaks which are distinct to this drug.