Abstract

PHARMACOGNOSTICAL STUDY ON MARKET SAMPLES OF MUSTAKA

*Mishra Anurag

Abstract

Herbal medicines are becoming popular in recent years with their global acceptability. Over increasing demand of herbal drugs led to a spurt in large scale commercial production. Supply line has been adversely affected leading to adulteration and substitution of genuine drugs leading to poor quality of herbal formulations. The situation becomes more serious with confusion of botanical identity of a large number of drugs mentioned in various indigenous systems of medicine. Mustaka is the potential drug, predominantly used for the Jwara and Atisara Chikitsa and commonly used in a lot of formulations from ancient times. Presently, various species of Cyperus are available in the drug market in the name of Mustaka viz. C. rotundus Linn., C. scariosus R.Br., and C. tuberosus Roxb. It is hard to find out genuine drug among them without help of modern scientific methods. Present study was planned to work out the botanical identity of market samples of Mustaka and its adulterants/substitutes.

Keywords: Ayurveda, Mustaka, Cyperus sp., Pharmacognostical study.