鏡検による粉末センナ茎と粉末センナ葉軸の鑑別

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As per the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law in Japan, leaflets, leaf rachises, leaf stalks (petioles), and fruits of senna (Alexandrian senna: Cassia acutifolia Delile or Tinnevelly senna: C. angustifolia Vahl) have been designated as raw materials for exclusive use in pharmaceuticals. In contrast, the stems of senna have been regarded as non-pharmaceuticals, unless their products have shown any "medical effects" or "dosage and administration"; this is attributable to the fact that the content of sennosides-the active constituents of crude drugs-is lower in stems than in the other parts mentioned above. Therefore, the stems of senna are used in health foods. However, health foods are sometimes found to contain sennosides in medicinal quantities; this is thought to be due to the illegal use of leaf rachises rather than stems. Inspectors can find leaf rachises when health foods consist of nonpowdered plant tissues, such as tea bags. However, when the product contains the plant in the powdered form, it is extremely difficult to distinguish the types of plant tissues therein. To overcome this problem, we developed a method of distinguishing powdered senna leaf rachises from powdered senna stems by using microscopy. Our key findings are as follows. Epidermal cells in the stomata distributional region are distinct in shape in the case of leaf rachises and stems: the former cells are elliptical, while the latter are polygonal. In addition, the relative length of the longitudinal axis of the epidermal cells differs in these 2 parts of the plant: the epidermal cells from the leaf rachis are longer than the adjacent stomatal cells, whereas the epidermal cells from the stem are usually shorter than the adjacent stomatal cells. These morphological characteristics were observed both in slices and in powdered samples of the plant, and were common to both Alexandrian and Tinnevelly senna. When we tested powdered samples containing a mixture of leaf rachises (5%) and stems (95%), we could identify the leaf rachises. Since the microscopic method does not warrant any expensive equipment, we believe it could be very useful for on-site inspection.
2011-08-20

鏡検による粉末センナ茎と粉末センナ葉軸の鑑別

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