Caldasia 24(2) 2002: 317-321

SOME ASPECTS ON PHARMACOGNOSY OF TEN SPECIES OF THE FAMILY UTILIZED IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE Algunos aspectos de la farmacognosia de diez especies de la familia Solanaceae empleadas en medicina tradicional R. K. MAITI 1, 2 L. VILLARREAL R.1* A. TREVIÑO V. 1 M.C. VALADES-CERDA 1 1Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas. Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. Apdo. Post. F-16, C.P. 66450. San Nicolás de los Garza, N.L. Mexico. 2Universidad de las Americas, Departamento de Quimica y Biologia, Santa Catarina Martir, C.P.72820, Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. (*[email protected]) ABSTRACT In the present work ten species of the family Solanaceae were studied applying techniques of pharmacognosy and histochemistry for the differentiation and iden- tification of each of the species. The anatomical characteristics used in the differen- tiation of the species are the types of trichomes, stomatas, crystals, glands, and position of pallisade parenchyma. In the histochemical tests the species present different grades of reaction in the contents of proteins, tannin, and alkaloids.

Key words. Pharmacognosy, Histochemistry, traditional medicine, Solanaceae.

RESUMEN Se estudiaron diez especies de la familia Solanaceae mediante las técnicas de farmacognosia e histoquímica. Las características anatómicas empleadas en la dife- renciación de las especies incluyen los tipos de tricomas, estomas, cristales, glán- dulas y la posición del parenquima. En las pruebas histoquímicas las especies presen- tan diferentes grados de reacción en los contenidos de proteínas, taninos y alcaloides.

Palabras clave. Farmacognosia, histoquímica, medicina tradicional, Solanaceae.

INTRODUCTION

Since remote time men have been utilizing the Actually, the use of the in traditional plants and animals as souces of food. The medicine has been replaced by the advances plants have been classified and grouped on in modern medicine. Besides mens have been the basis of utility: food, medicinal, textile and utilizing as immediate alternatives in the mar- timbers (Milliken and Albert, 1996)..The veg- ginal community and also in the cities. etation of Mexico is rich, showing great di- versity. The family Solanaceae include a large This study pretend to contribute to the knowl- number of species which grow mainly in the edge of some medicinal species of the family tropical and temeperate regions; rich in alka- Solanaceae utilizing the techniques of phar- loids of medicinal values. Some of these plants macognosy (Maiti et al. 2001).. have great economic importance. Some aspects on pharmacognosy of ten species of the family Solanaceae MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

A revision has been made in the herbarium of The species presented diverse types of epi- Biology Faculty, (UANL) to produce a list of dermal structures: trichomes observed are the species of the family Solanaceae reported multicellular, umiseriate in inoxia, D. for the state of Nuevo León used for medici- stramonium, Lycopersicon esculentum, nal purpose. With this information the se- nigrescens and S. rostratum, widely lected plants were collected from the fields distributed, and varying in its number among and identified with the help of taxonomic key. species observed. Besides, in Physalis The species studied were: Dattura inoxia viscosa , trichomes were branched, coincid- Mill., Datura stramonium L., Lycopersicum ing with that reported by Sabnis, cited by esculentum Mill., Nicotiana glauca Grah., Metcalfe and Chalk (1950), stellate trichomes Physalis viscosa L., Solandra nitida Swarttz, in Solanum eleagnifolium, are present on leaf Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav., Solanum surface as described by Vásquez et al. (1985), erianthum D. Don, Solanum nigrescens Mart this type of trichome is present in Solanum & Gal., Solanum rostratum Dun., Solanum erianthum and S. rostratum, varying in the triquetum Cav. number of branches. The majority of the spe- cies present glandular trichomes except Nic- Studies have been realized utilizing the tech- otiana glauca and Solandra nitida where tri- niques of Trease and Evans (1984). The chomes were absent. transparention of the leaves have been done by adopting the technique of Johansen (1940) The shape of epidermal cells vary from irregu- and Aguirre (1983), with some modifications. lar to square. The morphology of stomatas The number of stomatas, number of epider- were of two types: anisocytic present in mal cells were counted from different fields Datura inoxia, D. stramoniu, Nicotiana and finally stomatal index was estimated for glauca, Physalis viscosa, Solanum each species. americanum and S. rostratum; and anomocytic in Lycopersicum esculentum, The pallisade ratio were estimated on the ba- Solanum nitida, Solanum eleagnifolium, sis of the number of pallisade cells below four Solanum erianthum, S. nigrescens, the same epidermal cells observed in four different fields types of stomatas were reported in Solanaceae (40X), thereby obtaining an average of by Sabnis cited by Metcalfe y Chalk (1950). pallisade cells per four epidermal cells. De- The crystals of different forms were observed: scriptions have been made in relation with clustered in the form of sands in Lycopersicon the shape of epidermal cells, types of esculentum, Nicotiana glauca, Physalis stomatas, trichomes, and crystals. viscosa, Solanum americanum, S. eleagnifolium, S. erianthum, S. rostratum and Histochemical tests were realized following S. triquetrum.; drusas in Datura inoxia, D. the techniques of histochemistry by Gayen y stramonium, Physalis viscosa, Sandra nitida, Datta (1983), Curtis (1986) and Maiti and Solanum orienthum, S. nigrescens, S. Sanchez-Arreola (2000) , for the detection of rostratum and S. triquetrum. The prismatic proteins, starch, tannins, alkaloids, suberin, types were observed only in the species of lipids and cellulose to evaluate the degree of Datura, coinciding with that reported by reaction and staining intensity. Sabnis cited by Metcalf y Chalk (1950) and Trease and Evans (1976 and 1987). In the transverse section of the leaf, the majority of

318 Maiti et al. the species present one layer of pallisade pa- in D. inoxia, while in D. stramonium were dis- renchyma, except in Datura stramonium, tributed in dispersed form. Besides, the glan- Solandra nitida and Solanum erianthum. dular trichomes in D. inoxia posssess stalk Therefore, the size and form of and unicellular head; in D. stramonium the trichomes,crystals, types of stomatas and stalk is bicellular and the head is multicelular, epidermal cells vary widely among species of coinciding with with the observation by Solanum, as mentioned by Fahn (1978) and Trease and Evans (1984), they describe D. stra- Vázquez, (1985). Six species studied, showed monium var. tatula, possess glandular tri- the following anatomical characteristics: chomes of 1 or 2 cells; others with pedicells of Solanum elaeagnifolim and S. rostratum pre- 2 cells and with oval head of of 2 - 7 cells. senting stellate shaped, glandular trichomes In addition to the qualitative characters, the and irregular epidermal cells, distinguishable species show large variations in quantitative by the number of the rays of trichomes. For characters. the majority of the species stud- example, the number of rays vary in different ied present varaitions in the the contents of species in Solanum rostratum ( 4-9), S. protein, alkaloids. With respect to protein, the erianthum (4-12) and in S. elaeagnifolium (9- degree of reaction in Solanum americanum, 16) arms; other distinct characteristics are Physalis viscosa and Solanum nitida differ drusa type crystals as present in S. erianthum, in the majority of species (Table 2). S. rostratum and absent in S. eleagnifolium, With respect to tannins, the species with high where only cluster type of crystals in the form tannins are: Datura stramonium, Nicotiana of sands are present. The species Solanum glauca, Solandra nitida, Solanum americanum, S. nigrescens and S. triquetrum americanum and S. triquetrum. Higher quan- may be differentiated easily from S. tity of alkaloids are observed in the species of elaeagnifolium, S. erianthum and S. rostratum Datura inoxia and D. stramonium. The starch due to the fact that no stellate shaped tri- contents were present in intermediate form. chomes were present and the trichomes were The lipids were detected only in Solanum uniseriate except in Solanum americanum pre- nitida. In the tests of suberin and cellulose, senting glandular trichomes. variations were observed among different species. Through histochemical tests follow- Comparing Solanum americanum, S. ing the techniques of Johansen, 1940, it is nigrescens and S. triquetrum it may be men- confirmed that the family Solanaceae is rich tioned that S. nigrescens differs from S. in alkaloids, coinciding with that reported by americanum by the presence of 2-5 celled Domínguez (1979) multicellular trichomes, while S. triquetrum possess 2-3 celled trichomes, majority of CONCLUSIONS which are present on leaf margin; also pre- senting glands. S. americanum present dis- The species studied showed wide distribu- tinct clusture type crystals in the form of sands, tions, frequently occuring as weeds; consid- although in S. nigrescens the crystals are of ering as important medicinal resource drusa type and S. triquetrum presents both within the reach of the community. Utilizing drusas type and clustered in the form of sands. the techniques of pharmacognosy of the spe- The species of the genus Datura are charac- cies it is observed that the most important terized by anisocytic stomatas, glandular tri- anatomical characters are types of stomatas, chomes, non-glandular and drusa, differenti- non-glandular, and glandular trichomes and ating D. inoxia from D. stramonium by the crystal types. For example, the species arrangement of drusa types in the form of “U” Solanum americanum and S. nigrescens are

319 Some aspects on pharmacognosy of ten species of the family Solanaceae Table 1. Anatomical characteristics of leaf epidermal cells and crystals in 12 species of the family Solanaceae. Species Stomata Trichom- Trichome- Cristal- Crystale- Crystal- non- glandular drusa Prismátic sand type glandular Datura inoxia Mill.

Datura stramonium L.

Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.

Nicotiana glauca Grah.

Physalis viscosa L.

Solandra nitida Swartz

Solanum americanum Mill.

Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav.

Solanum erianthum D.Don.

Solanum nigrescens Mart & G al.

Solanum rostratum Don.

320 Maiti et al. frequently confused for their similarity in mor- JOHANSEN, D. A. 1940. Plant Microtechnique. phological characters, but these can be dif- First Edition. Mc Graw-Hill. Book Com- ferentiated on the basis of epidermal struc- pany. Inc. New York and London. tures. At the same time three species of the MAITI, R.K., & E. SÁNCHEZ-ARREOLA, 2000. genus Solanum possess stellate trichomes, Manual de farmacognosia. Departamento differing between them in the disposition and de Química y Biología, Universidad de las the number of arms. Américas-Puebla, México. The species of the genus Datura may be METCALFE, C. R. & L. CHALK. 1950. Anatomy easily distinguished by the disposition of of the Dicotiledons. Vol. II. pp 965-978. crystals and glandular trichomes. Through MILLIKEN, W & B. ALBERT. 1996. The use of histochemical tests may be detected the pres- medicinal plant species by the Yanomami ence of chemical substances in the leaves Indians of Brazil. Economic Botany 50:10- which confirms that family Solanaceae is rich 25. in proteins, tannins, alkaloids and other com- TREASE, E. G. & CH. W. EVANS. 1976. pounds , which vary among different species. Farmacognosia. Editorial Continental, S. These results may serve to relate with their A. de C. V. México pp 3- 795. medicinal values. TREASE, E. G. & CH. W. EVANS. 1987. Tratado de Farmacognosia. Doceava Edición. LITERATURE CITED Nueva Editorial Interamericana, S. A. de C. V., México, D. F. AGUIRRRE, C. R. 1983. Contribución al Conoci- TREASE, G. F. & CH. W. .EVANS. 1984. miento de la Pteridoflora del Estado de Farmacognosia. Tercera Impresión. Edito- Nuevo León, México. Tesis Profesional. rial Continental, S. A. México. Fac. de C. Biológicas. U.A.N.L., Monterrey, VÁSQUEZ, R. M. et al. 1985. Características N.L. Microhistológicas de especies forrajeras CURTIS, P. J. 1986. Microtecnia Vegetal. Prime- del matorral desértico micrófilo en el no- ra Edición. Editorial Trillas, S.A. de C.V. reste de México. Universidad Autónoma México, D.F. DOMÍNGUEZ, X. A. 1979. Mé- Agraria Antonio Narro. Buenavista, todo de Investigación Fitoquímica. Prime- Saltillo, Coah., México. Folleto de Divul- ra Reimpresión Editorial Limusa, México, gación. Vol. I. No. 6 (not consulted in ori- D. F. ginal). FAHN, A. 1978. Anatomía Vegetal. 1978. Pri- mera Edición. H. Blume Ediciones. Madrid España. pp 95 - 299 GAYEN, S. & P.C. DATTA. 1983. Herbal Chirata and Adulterants. Bull Bot. Soc. Bengala. Recibido: 23/08/2001 37:17 - 21 Aceptado: 30/07/2002

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