COMPARATIVE PHARMACOGNOSTICAL AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROFILE OF ROOT OF IXORA COCCINEA LINN AND IXORA ARBOREA ROXB.

Ixora arborea Roxb. and Ixora coccinea Linn are belonging to the same family Rubiaceae. Both the plants are medium sized perennial shrub from 6 to 8 feet in height; Large bunches terminal tricotomously cymes. I. coccinea with red colored flower whereas I. arborea white colored flowers. Root of both the plant used as astringent and antiseptic against scabies and other skin diseases. So, in the present study efforts are made in talking its pharmacognostical and physico-chemical aspects of both the species of Ixora and by using the above features, the plant can be easily identified and differentiated from each other. In I.coccinea cork with 5-6 layers, cortex 5-7 layers, where as I.arborea showed 2-3 layers of cork and 15-20 layers of cortex. Root powder showed similar characters i.e. Oil globules, Lignified fibers, tannin content, simple starch grains, pitted and border pitted vessels. Result obtained from physico-chemical study represented the similar pH value nearby 6.0 showed weak acidic in nature. Both the extractive value emphasized the presence of similar kind of hydrophilic and lipophilic chemical moiety in Ixora coccinea and Ixora arborea respectively. HPTLC shows similar Rf values of both the sample.