Abstract

Dissotis rotundifolia Triana (Melastomataceae), a native of tropical West Africa is known to have many uses in ethnomedicine. Establishment of pharmacognostic profile of the leaves will assist in standardization which can guarantee quality, purity and identification of samples. Evaluation of fresh, powdered and anatomical sections of the leaves was carried out to determine the macro-morphological, micromorphological, chemomicroscopic, numerical and phytochemical profiles. Macroscopically, the leaf was linear in shape, with a glabrous texture, a short petiole, margin entire, apex and leaf base acute with pinnate venation. Microsco-pically, stomata was anomocytic, epidermal cells were straight and polygonal with uniseriate and multiseriate covering trichomes. Chemomicroscopic characters present included lignin, starch, mucilage and calcium oxalate crystals while phytochemical evaluation revealed the presence of alkaloids, cardiac glycosides and saponins. The investigations also included the moisture content, ash values as well as palisade ratio, stomata index, vein – islet and veinlet termination numbers. These findings should be suitable for inclusion in the proposed Pharmacopoeia of Nigerian medicinal plants.

Key words: Dissotis rotundifolia, pharmacognostic evaluation, pharmacopoeia.