Morphological and histochemical studies on Abrus pulchellus leaves [Guinea-Bissau]
2003
Teixeira, G. | Falcao, J. (Lisbon Univ. (Portugal). Faculdade de Farmacia) | Diniz, M.A. (Instituto de Investigacao Cientifica Tropical, Lisbon (Portugal))
Several species of the genus Abrus are used in tradicional medicine. In Guinea-Bissau Abrus pulchellus Wall. ex Thwaites is also used as edulcorant. The genus Abrus presents some taxonomic difficulties. In this work, using light and scanning microscopy we describe morphological, anatomical and histochemical characters of A. pulchellus leaves. We emphasise the presence of multicellular non-glandular trichomes in the lower surface, always leaning towards the leaflet apex. The trichomes show an orange-brownish content in their basal cells in which seems to prevail a lipophilic composition. These and other characters are important for taxonomic identification and to distinguish between Abrus species, on entire or fragmented samples of natural products
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