Ayyavu Brama Dhayala Selvam
Accepted Abstracts: Nat Prod Chem Res
Species of Aconitum L. (Ranunculaceae) are commonly known as Aconites. Roots of Aconitum are extremely poisonous and hence named as ?the Queen of Poisons?. Aconites have been used both in traditional and modern systems of medicine across the world. They have been over-exploited due to their various medicinal properties, which ultimately resulted in the rarity of the species. Hence, the Government of India has placed all the species of Aconites under ?Negative List of Exports? in India during 1998, which regulates illegal trade/exploitation of Aconites from wild. Identification is one of the important prerequisites to get the desired therapeutic effects from the source medicinal plants/crude drugs. In the absence of morphological features, anatomical characters can be used to ascertain the correct botanical identity of the crude Aconite roots. Anatomical characters are of great value in establishing botanical identity of crude drugs. Further, it is simple, time saving, cost effective and most reliable. The tuberous roots of Aconites exhibit distinguishing anomalous anatomical characters, which can be used as a tool to delimit each species from its close allies. Besides, all the species of Aconitum possess starch grains in their roots. The size, shape, surface features, presence of hilum, birefringence properties and extinction cross of starch grains are characteristic for the species, which can also be used to identify the genuine Aconite roots as well as to detect possible adulterants that are prevalent in crude drug trade.
Ayyavu Brama Dhayala Selvam obtained his PhD degree in 1996 from University of Madras, Chennai. He has joined Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata as a Scientist in 2002. He has published 26 research papers/articles and 9 popular/career articles and many of them are available online for public utility. Recently, he has published a book entitled, ?Pharmacognosy of Negative listed Plants?. He is also a creative writer, written many poems on nature, especially on plants which are made online for public wakefulness.
