Micromorphology studies of three important medicinal plants of Asclepiadaceae family

Asclepiadaceae family contains many medicinally important species of which Hemidesmus indicus, Leptadenia reticulata and Tylophora india were selected for the present micromophological studies. It was revealed that different types of stomata like anomocytic, anisocytic and paracytic were present only on abaxial surfaces of leaves. However maximum anomocytic stomata i.e. 25.50±0.43 were observed in L. reticulata followed by H. indicus (24.54±0.31) and T. indica (11.36±0.16). Similarly, observation for trichomes revealed that they were present on abaxial surface in H. indicus and T. indica whereas in L. reticulata on both of the surfaces present. They varied in their type as unicellular in H. indicus whereas multicellular trichomes in L. reticulata and T. indica. This different micromorphological characters will help in identification of authentic plant species.