Pharmacognostic and phytochemical investigations on Pyrus pashia Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don stem bark

ABSTRACT Pyrus pashia Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don is a small to medium sized tree, one of the important member of Rose family (Rosaceae), commonly known as Indian Wild Pear and has been employed as herbal medicine especially in the treatment of digestive ailments. In pharmacognostic studies, various parameters viz. ash values, extractive values, foreign organic matter content, swelling index, foaming index, moisture content, fluorescence analysis, analysis of powdered drug reaction with different chemical reagents etc. were being determined. The powdered crude drug was successively extracted using soxhlet apparatus with different solvents (in terms of increasing polarity), n-hexane, chloroform, acetone, n-butanol and water. Qualitative phytochemical analysis of these extracts revealed the presence of flavonoids, phenolics, steroids, saponins, carbohydrates and tannins in some extracts, which later on were also being confirmed by TLC technique. The morphological, microscopic, physicochemical and chromatographic studies would serve as a standard reference for identification, authentication and distinguishing the plants from its adulterants. This is the first such study on standardization on Pyrus pashia Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don stem bark.