Macro- and microscopic investigation of leaves and flowers cultivated species genus Primula L. – drumstick primrose

Abstract

Topicality. Many species of genus Primula L. are valuable medicinal and vitamins plants, but analysis of scientific literature demonstrates a lack of systematic information on morphological and anatomical structure of some species of mentioned genus, especially drumstick primrose, so they still remain objects of investigation as perspective.
The aim of these studies was investigation of morphological and anatomical structure above ground organs of drumstick primrose and establishing macro- and microscopic diagnostic features of plants, that are necessary for identification of new plant raw material.
Materials and methods. The objects of the study were leaves and flowers of drumstick primrose harvested during the plants flowering. Microscopic analysis was performed using commonly accepted methodologies, microscopes MBS
9, MS 10, microphotographs made by the Samsung camera PL50.
Results and discussion. As a result of conducted investigation, it was found: 1. The morphological diagnostic features: leaves without leafstalk, reaches 20-40 cm in length, collected in a dense rosette. Leaf plate wide thick, elongated, on the edge finely serrated, light green, pubescence, wrinkled and lumpy. Thick peduncles, covered at the top by yellowish cilia. Small flowers on short pedicel, gathered in dense spherical umbrella diameter of 4-10 cm; corolla violet, blue, purple, red, pink or white. 2. Anatomical features: Leaf – leaf plate dorsoventral, hipostomatic; upper epidermis without stomata; lower epidermis of anomocytic type; many specialized cells with orange secret; on the edge of the plate located the teeth of secreting epidermis; lower epidermis densely covered with hairs of two kinds. Peduncles – cylindrical; anatomical structure transition. Primary bark a multilayer, many secretory cells and milkmen with brown contents; ring of conductive bundles narrow; core parenchyma contains many dark secretory structures. Epidermis covered by capitate glandular hairs. Flower – calyx; stomata and hairs absent; contain frequent dark secretory idioblast, veins with segmented milkmen with a yellowish secret. Corolla with secretory cells.
Conclusions. For the first time, has been conducted investigation of morphological and anatomical structure features of leaves and flowers cultivated species genus Primula L. – drumstick primrose, detected their typical macro- and microscopic diagnostic features, that make it possible to identify the flowers and leaves of this species primrose and that used to develop the project of quality control methods for the new medicinal plant raw material.