Development of Quality Standards of Terminalia catappa Leaves

Sophisticated modern research tools for evaluation of the plant drugs are available today but microscopic method is one of the simplest and cheapest methods to start with for establishing the correct identity of the source materials. the leaves of Terminalia catappa (combretaceae) are reported to have good medicinal values in traditional system of medicines. But the pharmacognostic and Phytochemical standardization of the leaves were not validated till date. With the aim of drawing the pharmacopoeial standards for this species, the present study deals with pharmacognostical parameters for the leaves of Terminalia catappa which mainly consists of Macroscopical and microscopical characters, physio-chemical constants, quantitative microscopy parameters and Preliminary phytochemical screening. this information will be of used for further pharmacological and instrumental evaluation of the species and will assist in standardization for quality, purity and sample identification.