Leaf epidermal studies of some medicinal plant species of the family annonaceae in the pra - suhien forest in the central region of ghana.

Y. Ameyaw¹* and H. K. Akotoye²

¹Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine, P. O. Box 73, Mampong-Akuapem, Eastern Region, (Ghana). ²Department of Environmental Science, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Central Region, (Ghana).

ABSTRACT: Histomorphological studies of five forest medicinal plant species of the family Annonaceae have been studied; the reported plant species are Cleistopholis patens (Benth.) Engl. and Diels, Enantia polycarpa Engl. and Diels, Monodora myristica Dunal, Xylopia aethiopica (Dunal) A. Rich and Xylopia quintasii Engl. and Diels. The studies revealed that leaves are hypostomatic with paracytic stomata found only in the lower epidermis. The epidermal cell walls are straight to wavy. The stomatal index of the plant species ranges from 0.086 ± 0.001 in E. polycarpa to 0.199 ± 0.001 in X. quintasii. Epidermal hairs – multicellular, non-glandular and stellate – were noticed only in E. polycarpa. Epidermal crystals observed include – cluster crystals, which were present in all the plant species and trihydric crystals found only in E. polycarpa.

KEYWORDS: Annonaceae; hypostomatic; paracytic

[ HTML Full Text]