Adulteration of Argyreia nervosa (Burm.f.) Boj. with Rivea hypocrateriformis Choisy− A new report

Abstract

Plants form the basis for traditional medicines throughout the world for thousands of years and continue to provide new remedies to mankind. Adulteration and substitutions are frequent in herbal raw material trade. Legally it has been treated as an intentional malpractice and economically motivated; however, it is unintentional too. Several studies have been done for a number of important herbal substances of indigenous systems of medicine to distinguish and authenticate the genuine material from adulterant. Adulterants are not legal, however, substitutes are legal and in practice to manufacture or prepare traditional medicines of AYUSH. There are several reports from India, by numerous researchers, who are authenticating the market samples of herbal substances and also identifying and characterizing them (both authentic and spurious). In general, the identification of market sample is achieved through reliable suppliers who will connect the researchers to the field collectors. Botanical pharmacognosy, describing organoleptic, macroscopic and microscopic characteristic features will help after the taxonomic identification of the spurious material. Until then it is difficult to identify the correct source of the adulterant. Though few reports are available on the adulteration on Argyreia nervosa (Burm.f.) Boj., in this article, we bring to light, another adulterant, the stem of Rivea hypocrateriformis Choisy found in trade. We followed the conventional methodology of tracing back the origin of the herbal substance from the wholesale dealers, to the local agents and finally approached the field collectors, to know the botanical origin of the adulterant. In this article we described the diagnostic pharmacognostical characteristic features to differentiate the authentic and adulterant in market samples.