Tavs A Abere 
,
Doris N Onwukaeme
For correspondence:- Tavs Abere Email: eseabere@yahoo.com Tel:+2348023395616
Received: 10 June 2011 Accepted: 18 December 2011 Published: 21 February 2012
Citation: Abere TA, Onwukaeme DN. Pharmacognostic Evaluation of the Leaves of Secamone afzelii (Schult) K Schum (Asclepiadaceae). Trop J Pharm Res 2012; 11(1):125-131 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v11i1.16
© 2012 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Purpose: Establishment of the pharmacognostic profile of the leaves of Secamone afzelii (Schult) K. Schum, known for its antimicrobial, antioxidant and free radical scavenging properties, will assist in standardization, quality assurance, purity and sample identification.
Methods: Evaluation of the fresh, powdered and anatomical sections of the leaves were carried out to determine the macromorphological, micromorphological, chemomicroscopic, numerical (palisade ratio, stomata number, stomata index, vein–islet number and veinlet termination number, moisture content, total ash, acid–insoluble ash, water–soluble ash, alcohol and water soluble extractive values) and phytochemical profiles.
Results: Macro-and microscopical studies indicated the presence of pinnately compound leaf, an entire margin with lanceolate shape, acute base, accumulate apex and reticulate venation. Epidermal walls were straight with numerous calcium oxalate crystals. Stomata arrangement was paracytic, with numerous unicellular uniseriate covering trichomes on both surfaces. Chemomicroscopic characters present included lignin, cellulose, mucilage, suberin and cutin, while phytochemical evaluation revealed the presence of alkaloids, tannins, cardiac glycosides and saponins. The findings also included numerical and quantitative leaf microscopy.
Conclusion: These findings could serve as a basis for proper identification, collection and investigation of Secamone afzelii.
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