LAUSR

The genus Sarcostemma finds a prominent place in different Indian systems of medicine. The different ethnic communities in India have used different species of Sarcostemma in the treatment of various human ailments. The plant Sarcostemma brevistigma is a perennial leafless, twining trailing shrub, with green cylindrical, fleshy, glabrous, green pendulous stems, exhibiting longitudinal ridges and nodes and exuding milky white latex. Plant shows circular vascular bundles in stem, absence of pith in root and anomocytic type of stomata on stem bark. The powder is fibrous, light greenish brown in colour and bitter in taste. It shows the presence of rosettes of calcium oxalate crystals, fragments of pitted, spiral vessels and laticifers. Laticiferous canals are wide, thick walled and non septate. The macroscopic, microscopic, histological identification and microscopic constants of Sarcostemma brevistigma can be used as a rapid, inexpensive and botanical identification technique which would be of immense value in standardization and authentication of this plant.