Author(s): Prathapa Reddy M, Shantha TR, Naveen Kumar SP, Rama Rao V, Shiddamallayya N and Amit Kumar Dixit

Abstract: Babbula is an important traditional medicinal plant in Ayurveda and Unani systems of medicine. All parts of the plant are useful as medicine/therapeutic agents to cure various ailments. Its bark is useful in cough, bronchitis, diarrhoea, dysentery, biliousness, burning sensation, piles, leucoderma, urinary discharges, ascites etc. Levaes are useful in bronchitis, piles, liver tonic, healing of fractures, eye diseases and the fruit is astringent to the bowls, cures biliousness. The gum cures biliousness, leprosy, liver tonic, urinary discharges, vaginal and uterine discharges, healing of fractures, sour throat, lung troubles etc. The flowers are a powerful tonic and good for insanity. Fruits are useful dysentery and in ophthalmia. Though all parts of the plant are used for curing in different ailments many works have carried out on gum, bark, seeds and leaves. But Pharmacognostical work has not been carried out on pods/fruits. Hence, we have carried out macro microscopiacal, powder studies, physico-chemical and preliminary phytochemical studies on the fruits of Acacia nilotica. The microscopic studies revealed the presence of elongated macrosclerides, abundant small starch grains and oil globules, uni seriate short tuffted trichomes, small rounded stone cells, lumen filled with brown content of tannin and thick walled parenchymatous cells of mesocarp region. The preliminary phytochemical analysis showed the presence of carbohydrates, proteins, saponins, phenols, steroids and tannins.