Abstract

VARIATION OF N-ALKANES AND MICRO-MORPHOLOGICAL PATTERN OF THE EPICUTICULAR WAX IN DIFFERENT PLANT ORGANS OF CROTALARIA PALLIDA.

Sushobhan Ukil, Irani Biswas and Subrata Laskar*

Abstract

The present communication is a first time investigation on the n-alkane compositions of the epicuticular wax and micro-morphological studies of the surface architecture of leaves, flowers and seeds of an ethnomedicinally useful leguminous weed Crotalaria pallida. The n-alkane composition of epicuticular wax of its leaves, flowers and seeds of Crotalaria pallida showed wide variation among themselves within the same geographical region which is noteworthy. Twenty one long chain hydrocarbons (n-C15 - n-C35)are found to be present in the surface wax of leaves where Heneicosane (C19) (9.58%) and Hentriacontane (C31) (9.00%) are the predominant ones followed by Tetracosane (C24) (6.53%), Pentacosane (C25) (6.46), Hexacosane (C26) (6.21%), Nonacosane (C29) (5.89%), Heptacosane (C27) (5.39%), Tricosane (C23) (5.35%) and Octacosane (C28) (4.45%) respectively. The flowers and seeds showed even higher values of short to medium-chained n-alkanes (C17 - C27) as compared to those of leaves. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) studies of surface features of leaves, flowers and seeds of Crotalaria pallida as well as their respective hydrocarbon samples reveal characteristic micro-morphological architecture.

Keywords: Crotalaria pallida, n-alkane, surface micro-morphology, SEM, chemotaxonomy, pharmacognosy.