RESEARCH ARTICLE

Botanical Pharmacognosy on Seeds of Beejband 1: Rumex

maritimus
Kannan R1*, Babu U V1
Abstract: Rumex, belongs to the family Polygonaceae, is a genus with 149 species, distributed in temperate regions. Rumex
maritimus, an aquatic annual herb, called as Golden dock, found in many parts of the world. In India, it is abundant in north
eastern states, where it is used as vegetable and locally called as Torang Khongchak, Bonchuka or Ban Palang. In Ayurveda seeds
are called as Jangli Palak and in trade they are called as Beejband. It is also reported from few other parts of India as weed in
wheat field or as vegetable used by tribes. Leaves and seeds are medicinally useful in indigenous systems of medicine and in
folklore too. It is reported that seeds of Sida cordifolia and Abutilon indicum are also used as Beejband. Phytochemical
constituents of seeds are reported. Cytotoxic, membrane stabilizing and antimicrobial activities of seeds were studied. Though
the seeds are commercially available, useful in indigenous systems of medicine and also used by AYUSH industries as active
herbal raw material, scientific study on this plant is scarce. This article describes the pharmacognostical characters of seeds or
fruits. Diagnostic features of the fruits are the presence of 2 or 4 needle like appendages and a tubercle in each of the persistent
tepal. Microscopically, undifferentiated and single veined tubercle is the characteristic feature. Achenes are triangular in CS with
two cotyledons embedded in the starchy endosperm. The substitutes, S. cordifolia and A. indicum do not have persistent calyx
lobes, tubercles or needle like appendages, thus they can be easily identified with their morphological characters itself.

INTRODUCTION taxonomical characters mentioned in various floras. [1-10]

Rumex maritimus is one among the 149 species, belongs to
the family Polygonaceae. It is nearly cosmopolitan in
occurrence. Its natural habitat is reported almost in every
part of the world. [1] Taxonomical key to identify the species
is provided by various authors. [2-5] Its morphological
description [1, 3-6] with illustration of the fruit [4, 7-10] is
available for easy identification of the species.
Taxonomically few authors have misidentified R.
persicarioides and R. palustris as R. maritimus [11, 12] and
those were corrected later. In India this plant is reported
mainly from north eastern states like Arunachal Pradesh,
Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, where it is said to
be a vegetable. [13-16] It is also reported from few other parts
of India. [17] Plants, leaves and seeds are being used in
medicine. [18, 19] Seeds of Sida cordifolia and Abutilon
indicum are also used as Beejband. [19] Roots are the
substitute for Rhubarb. [20] Seeds extracted in alkaline
water produce a dye called as Golden dock brown has an
affinity for cotton. [21]
Though the seeds are commercially available, useful in
indigenous systems of medicine and also used by AYUSH
industries as active herbal raw material, scientific study on
this plant is scarce, especially on seeds except few
phytochemical and antimicrobial studies. [22, 23] There is no
pharmacognostical description of the seeds is available.
Hence, this article describes the pharmacognostical
characters of fruits of R. maritimus
METHODS
Matured fruits or achenes of R. maritimus were collected
from various places near the canals and drainages,
especially on the banks of Nambul River, in the outskirts of
Imphal, Manipur (N24 48.715 E93 57.047; N24 45.317 E93
55.195). Collected plants were identified by referring the
1Research and Development Center, The Himalaya Drug Company,
Bangalore-562123, India.
E-mail: dr.kannan@himalayahealthcare.com
*Corresponding author
Herbarium sheets were prepared and maintained in the in-
house herbaria. Fruits were sun-dried for further studies.
Commercial samples of Beejband were procured from
various suppliers. Pharmacognostical characteristics
including organoleptical, macroscopical, microscopical and
powder characters were studied as described in quality
control methods [24-26] of crude herbal drugs.
RESULTS
Identity of Commercial Samples
Seeds of R. maritimus supplied by few suppliers especially
from west Bengal & north eastern states are found
authentic. However, negligible quantities (less than 3% by
weight) of seeds of other species of Rumex are admixed.
Fruits of R. maritimus are characterized by having an
oblong tubercle in each of the persistent tepal. The tepal
blade or lobes are narrow. Each lobe has 2 or 4 needle like
appendages in the middle on either side, so that each fruit
use to have 6 or 12 appendages.
Macroscopical Characters
Commercial samples are actually the whole fruits (Figure
1a) with achenes enclosed within the persistent tepal lobes.
They are golden brown to reddish brown to dark brown in
color, lightweight, not smooth and sticks on coarse surfaces
and on hands while handling. On close observation it has a
thin and wiry pedicel, up to 6 mm long and conical to
inverted top shaped fruit. It has 3 persistent tepals. Each
tepal has a tubercle and 2-3 bristles or appendages, which
are up to 6 mm long. Tepals enclose a minute achene.
Achenes (Figure 1b) are 400*650 in size, pale brown
colored, rarely buff colored, with smooth and glabrous
surface, nearly spindle shaped, acute on both ends, three
angled with a longitudinally running ridge on each corners.
In the distil end of few achenes, shows 3 persistent styles.
Microscopical Characters
CS of mid region of the fruit shows a central triangular
achene, closely surrounded by 3 persistent tepals on each

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 RESEARCH ARTICLE

Figure 1: (a) Fruits of R. maritimus, (b) Achenes of R. maritimus, (c) TS of persistent tepal with tubercle, (d) TS of achene, (e-i) Powder
microscopy of fruits of R. maritimus, (e-g) Parenchyma cells and/or endosperm cells, (h) Epidermal cells, (i) Elongated lignified stone
cells from achene wall, (j) Spirally thickened vessel element, (k) Fragments of tepal pieces, (l) Starch grains

side. Each tepal (Figure 1c) has a bulged tubercle and thin
wing like tepal lobes on either side, looks like a midrib and
lamina of the leaf. Tubercle is circular in outline, consists of
outer large sized single layered epidermal cells encloses
the undifferentiated thin walled circular to polygonal
shaped parenchyma cells with a eccentric vascular bundle
near the inner corner. Lobes made of outer smaller sized
epidermal cells enclose undifferentiated parenchyma cells
traversed with vascular traces.
In CS, achene (Figure 1d) is triangle in outline. It shows
two clear zones, the achene wall and the seed. Outermost
single layer is the large sized epidermal cells, followed by
few layers of thick walled cells, filled with dark brown
contents makes the achene wall. It has three vascular
bundles, one in each corner. Inner to this is the outermost
large sized thin walled, translucent cells followed by
endosperm, which is made of thin walled parenchyma cells
stained darkly for iodine solution. In the center two
cotyledons are located in a circular cavity.
Powder Microscopy
Powdered achenes of R. maritimus is mild brown in color,
coarse in nature, rough in texture, adheres to fingers while
handling and there is no characteristic aroma. Under
microscope it shows parenchyma and endosperm cells
(Figure 1e-g) as major component. Apart from these cells,
epidermal cells with zigzag margin (figure 1h); lignified
elongated cells from achene wall (Figure 1i); spirally
thickened vessel elements (Figure 1j); fragments of tepal
pieces (Figure 1k) and minute starch grains (Figure 1l) are
observed.
DISCUSSIONS
As it was mentioned earlier, [6] it grows in the banks of
rivers and canals where it got flooded regularly. It was
reported that this species, is rarely biennial. In our
observation, we come across with annual plants only. It
was reported that the achenes are upto 2 mm in size, [1]
however in our observation it was not more than 1.5 mm
long. The characters of bristles described earlier, [2, 3, 10] are
matches with our observations. Variation in the few of the
quantitative characters may be due to the geographical
variations.
Though the seeds of Rumex maritimus are used in
AYUSH industries as an active ingredient,
pharmacognostical characteristic features were not

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 RESEARCH ARTICLE
described earlier and it is described here for the first time.
The diagrams provided in the taxonomy books helped
much in identifying and authenticating the species.
Diagnostic features to identify the fruits by macroscopical
characters is the presence of 2 or 4 needle like appendages
and a tubercle in each of the persistent tepal, normally
having 6 appendages in each fruit. Microscopically, tubercle
is undifferentiated and veined with single vascular trace
and tepals are having more than one vascular trace.
Achenes are triangular in CS with two cotyledons
embedded in the starchy endosperm. The substitutes, S.
cordifolia and A. indicum do not have persistent calyx lobes,
tubercles or needle like appendages, thus they can be easily
identified with their morphological characters itself.
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Cite this article as: Kannan R, Babu U V. Botanical
Pharmacognosy on Seeds of Beejband 1: Rumex
maritimus. Inventi Rapid: Planta Activa, 2013(2):1-3,
2013.
3 2013 ppa 237, CCC: $10 Inventi Journals (P) Ltd
Published on Web 15/02/2013, www.inventi.in