Pharmacognostic and preliminary phytochemical studies of Gnetumula Brongn

Medicinal plants are of great value in the field of treatment and cure of disease. Herbal drug Industry would be largely dependent upon the reliable methodolgies for the standardisation and quality control of traditional systems of medicine which continues to be widely practised in India.Gnetum ula (fam: Gnetaceae) is widely used to cure various ailments like Rheumatism, Bronchitis, Piles, Inflammation, jaundice, arthritis. The study profile includes organoleptic characters, Microscopic studies, Physiochemical characters such as ash value, extractive values, crude fibre content, fluorescence analsis, preliminaryy phytochemical testing followed by total phenolic and flavonoids assay. Stem of G. ula showed the presence of rich fibre content and length of fibres were maximum of 2544µ. Total ash determined was 3.80% and acid insoluble value being 0.98%. Phytochmical screening showed the presence of Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Phytosterols, Phenols and Tannins and carbohydrates. Total alkaloid and Flavonoid content was found to be more for ethanol extract. However, available literature revealed that no Pharmacognostic study has been reported on the stem of G.ula. So, data obtained from this study can be used for identification and determination of quality and purity of the plant material in the future.