In the last few decades herbal medicine has regained its popularity as a complementary or alternative medicine and is gaining worldwide acceptance. With the increase in the popularity of plants as an alternative medicine, more herbal drugs are now available in various forms in the market. Due to the increase in demand, the price of raw materials has also inevitably increased. There has been a rapid development in the herbal industries utilising locally available plants, either wild or introduced. Therefore an accurate identification is crucial before chemists and pharmacognosists can search for new chemical subtances from those plants and repeat their experiments. According to the latest report, there are about 1,2000 species of plants in this country that have potential pharmaceutical value. The study of plant anatomy is central in the identification or confirmation of species, especially in the absence of floral or fruiting materials. Studies have shown that many anatomical characteristics of the leaves and petioles vary between species. These include the structure of the leaf midribs, laminas, margins, venation, patterns and epidermis. A detailed anatomical description of the plant organ would also be very useful to help identify the cells and tissue fragments for the confirmation of species in herbal product.
KHATIJAH HUSSIN, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor at the School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology. Another of her publication with Penerbit UKM is Sumber Asli Tasik Chini (ed. with Mushrifah Idris & Abdul Latiff Mohamad 2005).
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Penerbit UKM
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600, Bangi, Selangor,
Malaysia
Fax no. 03-89254575
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