Pharmacognostic Evaluation of the Flower of Alcea rosea L.

The flowers of Alcea rosea L., Malvaceae, sold in the Indian market under the trade name 'Gulkhairo', are well known for their expectorant, cooling and diuretic properties and used in many indigenous cough mixtures in India. The present paper deals with the detailed pharmacognosy of the floral parts including morphological, anatomical, phytochemical and fluorescence characters. Some of the diagnostic features of the drug are : pedicel characterized by multicellular appendages, stellate hairs, rosette crystals of Ca-oxalate, starch sheath and large sized mucilage canals; sepals having distinctive multicellular appendages arranged in a semilunar fashion present adaxially at their base; monadelphous stamens, pollen grains pentaporate provided with dimorphic spines; placentation axile, ovules campylotropous; dark green fluorescence of the powder with nitrocellulose in amyl acetate and yellow fluorescence of trichomes under Fluorescence microscope.