A COMPARISON STUDY OF MACROSCOPICAL AND MICROSCOPICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF POWDER OF HARITAKI: TERMINALIA CHEBULA (PERICARP), YAVANI: TRACHYSPERMUM AMMI (FRUIT), AJMODA: APIUM LEPTOPHYLLUM (FRUIT) AND SUNTHI: ZINGIBER OFFICINALIE (RHIZOME)

Terminaila chebula, Trachyspermum ammi, Apium leptophyllum , Zingiber officinalie are herbal medicines having many maladies in Asian traditional medicine. This crude drug powder study was aimed to develop characteristics of powder crude in order to assess the quality of herbal drugs for therapeutic value. We have developed a simple scheme for quality and authentication of botanical ingredients. Due to very little literature is available for quality evaluation of crude drug powder. Samples subjected to botanical characterization. The set parameters were found to be sufficient to evaluate crude drug powder and can be used as reference standards for the quality control /quality assurance study. The powder characteristics of individual drugs are studied by classical pharmacognostical methods. The authenticity of the herbal drugs was confirmed by comparison of their powder characteristics with those given in the literature. A large number of ayurvedic formulations have been marketed but hardly any standards have been laid down for establishing their quality. This work utilizes microscopy as a tool to identify the presence of all the ingredients claimed in the various ayurvedic formulations.