Quality Control Studies of Mesua ferrea Linn. Flowers

Mesua ferrea Linn. belonging to the family Clusiaceae (alternatively Guttiferea). The flowers were fragrant, cream coloured, ebracteate, pedicellate, pedicel short, axillary, solitary or in pairs (cluster) and 2.5-7.5 cm in diameter, bisexual and buds were sub-globose. The transverse section showed numerous multicellular and multiseriate type trichomes on the upper layer of the epidermis. Foreign organic matter (0.47% w/w), total ash (6.30% w/w), acid insoluble ash (2.30 % w/w), water soluble ash (2.31 % w/w), alcohol soluble extractive (20.53 % w/w), water soluble extractive (10.26 % w/w), loss on drying (9.88 %), foaming index (333.3), swelling index (0.53 ml) and volatile oil (0.20 % v/w) of the crude drug were been obtained. A fingerprint of fluorescence was obtained. Chlorinated pesticide in first and second elute from column were 0.030 and 0.013 respectively and phosphated pesticides in first elute was 0.028 mg/kg of crude drug. Preliminary phytochemical screening showed the presence of many phytochemicals.