Pharmacognostical and physicochemical studies of allium fistulosum leaves / Nor Hanisah Sarah Mohd

Allium .fistulosum (Liliaceae), also known as "kucai", is used by local people in Malaysia to treat cold and abdominal disorders as well as to drain pus from sores, boil and abscesses. 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 (20.63% ± 0.2). Water soluble extractive value (28.17% ± 4.2) of the plant was approximately 3 times higher than ethanol extractive value (9.9% ± 0.2). Determination of total ash value gave result in 16.57% ± 0.0033. TLC of three different extracts which are hexane, chloroform and ethanolic extracts, using chloroform as mobile phase and silica gel as stationary phase showed 5- 7 clearly spots 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.