PHARMACOGNOSTICAL EVALUATION OF INGREDIENTS OF KANTAKA PANCHMOOLA- AN AYURVEDIC COMPOUND

Background: Medicines prepared from plants are made using plant parts, i.e., Root, Stem, Flower, Fruit, Bark, Seed, Leaf, etc. When the root of five plants is taken together to prepare a formulation, it is called Panchamoola. Five types of Panchamoola are mentioned in Samhita. Kantaka Panchamoola is one such Panchamoola, Kantaka means thorns and Moola is root. The contents of Kantaka Panchamoola are Karmarda (Carissa carandas Linn.), Gokshura (Tribulus terrestris Linn.), Saireyaka (Barleria prionitis Linn.), Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus Willd.) and Himsra (Capparis spinosa Linn.). All five plants of Kantaka Panchamoola have thorns; therefore, roots of these five plants are collectively called as Kantaka Panchamoola. Material & Method: Freehand transverse sections of five roots were taken and using required reagents (Safranin, Sudan 3). Sections were observed under the microscope to assess their various microscopic features. Observation & Result: Pharmacognostical characters shows identification characters of plants included in Kantaka Panchmoola like Stone cells, Starch grains in Karmarda (Carissa carandas Linn.), Acicular crystals in Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus Willd.), cork cmbium in Saireyaka (Barleria prionitis Linn.) tracheids, rosset crystals in Gokshura (Tribulus terrestris Linn.), oil globules in Himsra (Capparis spinosa Linn.) were observed. Discussion and Conclusion: The microscopic structures which are observed in Kantaka Panchmoola helps in correct identification of roots of Karmarda (Carissa carandas Linn.), Gokshura (Tribulus terrestris Linn.), Saireyaka (Barleria prionitis Linn.), Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus Willd.) and Himsra (Capparis spinosa Linn.).