Philadelphia University

Faculty of pharmacy
Pharmacognosy & Phytochemistry Lab
Eman Al-Shahrori
Experiment 1

 Introduction.

 Binocular compound light microscope.

 Pharmacognosy: is the study of starting material and substance intended for
therapeutics, and biological origin, in other words obtained from plants
animals, or by fermentation from microorganism.
 The word pharmacognosy is derived from the Greek :
 Pharmakon: drug.
 Gignosco: to acquire knowledge of.
 Definition of drugs: the term “drug” can be defined as a substance of either
natural or synthetic origin, which can exert a biological effect and can be
used for therapeutic or other medical purposes.
 Drug uses:
 It may be an actual therapeutic agent.
 it may serve surgical or anesthetic purposes.
 it may be an additive for pharmaceutical preparations.
 it might also serve diagnostic purposes.
 Crude drugs: are herbal or animal drugs which consist of natural substances
that have undergone no other processes than collection and drying which
allow us to know the organoleptic properties for different types of plants like:
1-Color 2-Shape 3-Size 4-Texture 5-Odor 6-Taste
 Organoleptic evaluation: is an evaluation by means of the organs of sense,
and includes the macroscopic (observable by naked eye) appearance of the
drug, its odor and taste.

 Advanced crude drug: is obtained by changing the shape of plant by physical

process like:
1-Slicing 2-Chipping 3-Grinding 4-Powdering
 Preparation of drugs for microscopical examination and general use of
reagents:
 The following aims should be kept in mind for the microscopical examination
of advanced crude drugs:
 The determination of the size, shape and relative positions of the different
cells and tissues.
 The determination of chemical nature of the cell walls.
 The determination of the form and chemical nature of cell content.
 Reagents used as a mounting reagent:
1. Clearing mounting reagents:
 Chloralhydrate reagent: dissolve 80 gm of chloralhydrate in 20 ml water, a
valuable and widely used reagent, heating at water bath and maceration of
the plant powder well give a better result since defatting and clearing action
of the reagent well be better, this reagent well dissolve many cell content as
fat, resin starch ,can’t dissolve ca-oxalate crystals .
 Diluted ethanol reagent: different strength are used for preserving material
and for hardening, alcohol acts as a clearing reagent by dissolving oils, resins,
chlorophyll, etc., while it does not dissolve gum and mucilage

 Smith's reagent: is suitable mounting reagent for starch, it is composed of

equal amount of water, glycerin and 50% acetic acid.and it is used to observe
details od starch granules.

2. Staining mounting reagents:

 Iodine reagent: this gives blue color with starch and hemicelluloses.

 Phloroglucinol/HCl reagent: 1% solution in 90% ethanol with conc. HCl as a

test for lignin. Lignified structured well be colored with pink/red color.
Hydrochloric acid is a powerful clearing agent and it will dissolve many cells
contents as starch.
Compound light microscope

 A compound light microscope is a microscope with more than one lens and
its own light source. In this type of microscope, there are ocular lenses in the
binocular eyepieces and objective lenses in a rotating nosepiece closer to the
specimen.
 Although sometimes found as monocular with one ocular lens, the Compound
Binocular Light Microscope is more commonly used today.
 Here are the important microscope parts and the function of each part:
 Eyepiece: The lens the viewer looks through to see the specimen. The
eyepiece usually contains a 10X or 15X power lens.
 Body tube (Head): The body tube connects the eyepiece to the objective
lenses.
 Arm: The arm connects the body tube to the base of the microscope.
 Coarse adjustment: Brings the specimen into general focus.
 Fine adjustment: Fine tunes the focus and increases the detail of the
specimen.
 Revolving Nosepiece: A rotating turret that houses the objective lenses. The
viewer spins the nosepiece to select different objective lenses.
 Objective lenses: One of the most important parts of a compound
microscope, as they are the lenses closest to the specimen.
 A standard microscope has three, four, or five objective lenses that range in
power from 4X to 100X. When focusing the microscope, be careful that the
objective lens doesn’t touch the slide, as it could break the slide and destroy
the specimen.
 Specimen or slide: The specimen is the object being examined. Most
specimens are mounted on slides, flat rectangles of thin glass.

 Stage: The flat platform where the slide is placed.

 Stage clips: Metal clips that hold the slide in place.

 Iris diaphragm: Adjusts the amount of light that reaches the specimen.

 Condenser: Gathers and focuses light from the illuminator onto the specimen
being viewed.

 Stage control knob: to move stage to right or left

Practical part:
 Materials used in our experiments:

Plastic dropper Slide Cover slip

How to prepare slide for microscopical
examination:
How to put coverslip on slide: