SYSTEMATICS OF MEDICINALLY USED RANUNCULACEOUS SPECIES OF DISTRICTS UPPER DIR AND CHITRAL - PAKISTAN

Abstract

The present research was conducted to study the morphological, palyno- anatomical characteristics and medicinally used Ranunculaceous species from Districts Chitral and Upper Dir. There is no extensive documentation on the systematics of Ranunculaceous species from the study area. The present exploration provides baseline data bout the diversity, distribution, systematics and medicinal uses of Ranunculaceous species from the study area. A total of 23 species belonging to 5 genera were collected for the first time. A total of 20 species were studied for foliar epidermal anatomy and 18 were observed for palynological investigation. The morphological characters were studied for all the 23 species. These species were used by the local communities for the treatment of various ailments such as sciatica, rheumatism, headache and respiratory disorders etc. Binocular dissecting microscope was used for morphological studies. Roots, stem, leaves, flower sepals, petals, stamens and styles were observed. Anatomical characters of the reported species were studied under light microscope (LM) and recorded qualitative and quantitative characters. Qualitative characters include; shape of epidermal cell, type of stomata, type of trichomes and glands. Quantitative characters includes; length and width of epidermal cells, stomata, stomatal pore and trichomes. Whereas the pollen morphology of 18 species were also studied with the help of both Light Microscopy (LM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). In these species different prolate, sub prolate, sub spheroidal, scarbrate, subolate, verrucate, gemmate and psillate types of pollen were observed. Most of the species were tricolporate while monocolpate were also investigated. These pollens have very important taxonomic characteristics for the identification of Ranunculaceous species. The anatomical character also have significant role in identification of species. Both palynological and anatomical characters are taxonomically useful and can be employed to identify and delimit each species.