Pharmacognostical screening of seeds of Cassia absus

Cassia absus is considered to be useful in many ailments and diseases. It is traditionally used for many medicinal purposes. The seeds have a bitter, bad taste and having diuretic, cathartic and useful in the liver and kidney diseases. It is very helpful in reducing the swelling and is effective in eye ailments. It also prevents hemorrhages. Its alkaline nature helps in scrapping of the extended skin. The seeds are also having astringent properties. (1) In order to ensure the use of only genuine and uniform material in preparation of herbal formulation, work on standardization was carried out. Morphological and anatomical aspects as well as differential micro chemical response have been worked out to identify the diagnostic features of the leaf. Physical constant values involving moisture content, ash and extractives as well as qualitative and quantitative estimation of various phyto - chemicals have been studied. The presence of lipid, saponin, tannin, alkaloid, phenol, steroid, flavonoid, and some other chemical constituents are recorded.