Database on medicinal plants used in ayurveda - AYUSH Research ...

Gunam (Pharmacological action) - Thuyaradakki (Analgesic),
Isivagattri (Anti-spasmodic).
Siddha pharmaceutical preparations – Siropaga nivarana thylam, Kabata
mathirai,Uzhikalan, Uzhimathirai,Van mezhugu.
Uses- Used in the treatment Rhumatism & Diarrhoea.
PHARMACOGNOSY
Macroscopic
Capsule- Fruits ovoid or nearly globular, sometimes depressed at the base
and apex, 5-7.5 cm diam., crowned with a large stellate stigma with 12-15
rays and contracted at the base to a neck, which is enlarged near the
penduncle. Colour pale yellowish-brown, often marked with darker spots.
From the inner surface of the thin brittle pericarp membranous placenta equal
in number to the rays of the stigma project into the cavity of the fruit but do
not meet at the centre; dehiscence by pores just beneath the stigma. Capsule
unilocular, with 8-15 parietal placentae, which extends the centre of the
locules in the form of thin plates; odourless; taste slightly bitter (Mukerji,
1953; Wallis, 1967).
Seeds -1-1.25 mm long, almost white to slate-grey in colour, reniform to subreniform
and marked with conspicuous, raised polygonal reticulations with
straight edges and about 120 � in width. The hilum and micropyle are
situated in the slight depression near the smaller end. The embryo is curved
and is embedded in an abundant oily endosperm, odourless; taste oily
(Mukerji, 1953; Wallis, 1967).
Opium occurs in cubical pieces, weighing about 900 gm, varying from hard
and brittle to plastic, internally dark brown, smooth and homogenous. Odour
strong and characteristic; taste bitter.
Microscopic
It shows a few fragments of the outer epidermis of the poppy capsule.
Epidermal cells are unlignified, tabular, polygonal small, five or six-sided
with strongly thickened anticlinal walls, about 15-40 �. Stomata few, large,
ranunculaceous. Fragments of the poppy leaf shows upper epidermis of thin
walled polygonal cells; stomata absent. Lower epidermal cells with slightly
wavy walls, stomata numerous, large, ranunculaceous. Also shows fragments
of mesophyll and vascular bundles (Mukerji, 1953; Wallis, 1967).
Physical constants
Opium – Morphine content - Not less than 9.5%
Poppy capsules – Morphine – 0.1 – 0.3%
Moisture content – About 13% (Mukerji, 1953).
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