Pharmacognostical Study of Flacourtia Cataphracta Roxb. Family Flacourtiaceae, Cultivated in Egypt

Pharmacognostical Study of Flacourti cataphracta Roxb. Family Flacourtiaceae, Cultivated in Egypt.Flacourtia cataphracta Roxb. Family Flacourtiaceae is a shrub or low branched tree growing in tropical and subtropical regions. It is used in the Indian folk medicine as tonic, diaphoretic, stomachic, in the treatment of diarrhea and distended stomach and to relieve bronchitis and cough. The leaves and bark are applied on bleeding gums and aching teeth. The bark infusion is gargled to alleviate hoarseness.Literature survey showed that nothing could be traced concerning the botanical and phytochemical studies of Flacourtia cataphracta except few notes about taxonomical characters, this stimulates the present work which includes:Part I: Botanical StudyMacro- and micromorpholgy of the organs of the plant underinvestigation in both entire and powdered forms.Part II: Phytochemical Study1- Preliminary phytochemical screening of the different organs of the plant.2- Isolation and identification of the possible different constituents of the plant.Part III: Biological Study1- Preliminary antimicrobial study of different extracts of the leaves.2- Toxicological effects of different extracts of the leaves.3- Preliminary Pharmacological investigation of the leaves extract(a) Anti-diarrhea! activity (b) Anti-inflammatory activity (c) Anti-pyretic activity.426The family Chenopediaceae includes a large of species (1500) and i-epresented in Egypt by genera and 74 species. These species are reputed their variable constituents and variable uses.Amongst these species which are included in his study are Haloxylon salicornicum auct.,non Bunge, wn as “flimth” and Arthrocnemum glaucum (Del.) Ung.— mb., known as Oshnaan”, which are indigenous flourishing in Egypt and reported to have sometraditional uses.The study was planned to establish thechemical constitution of these two plants and to find out their potentialities as medicinal plants.The present study included the following:Part I : Botanical studies of the different organs of the two plants under investigation.Part II Comparative phytochemical studies of the two plants under investigationPart III : Pharmacological studies.