Pharmacognostical and physicochemical studies of the leaves of syzygium polyanthum / Siti Mariam Saha

Syzygium polyanthum (Myrtaceae), also known as "daun salam", had been studied to have antifungal and antibacterial activities. This recent study aimed to generate various parameters of pharmacopoeial standards of this species such as macroscopic characteristics, loss on drying, total ash, extractive value and thin layer chromatography profiles. Most of the methods were based on World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for quality control methods for medicinal plant materials. Powdered leaves of the plant showed high moisture content which could be represented by loss on drying (6.38% ± 0.11). Water-soluble extractive value (12.65% ± 0.70) of the sample was quite similar amount to ethanol extractive value (l 0.07% ± 0.62). Determination of total ash value gave result in 4.7% ± 0.1 l. TLC of three different extracts which are hexane, chloroform and ethanolic extracts, using chloroform as mobile phase and silica gel as stationary phase showed 11 clearly spots in each extract that were detected under daylight and UV light (254 and 365 nm). The results of the study could be useful in setting some parameters for identification and preparation of a monograph of the plant.