indivara indivara :
Morphology:
Rhizome-clothed with leaf sheath, spongy roots, light in weight, size variable, dark greenish pink in colour;
no odour; taste, salty
Histology:
Rhizome – Epidermis single layered; a cortical region distinct from the stelar region present; cortical region
prominently aerenchymatous with large air chambers due to parenchymatous trabeculae; several small patches of
tissues present among the trabeculae, some of which are of undifferentiated parenchyma while some show a strand
or two of xylem and phloem; several of the air chambers show partition by a thin diaphragm of one or two layers of
thin walled cells with minute intercellular spaces and cross- wall perforations; occasionally, a cortical bundle with
well developed vascular tissues within a distinct endodermis and air chambers seen, beneath which a thick walled
parenchymatous sheath of 6 or 7 layers of cells enclosing the xylem, phloem and parenchyma is present; cortical
region also shows raphides, starch grains and amber coloured amorphous bodies staining bright red with Sudan III
in fair amounts, most of them displaced from their original positions; stelar region surrounded by endodermis,
within which numerous patches of reduced vascular bundles containing a few xylem and phloem strands are seen;
air spaces also sporadically present; starch grains similar to cortex present.
Powder –Blackish pink, shows raphides, starch grains, parenchyma, vessel elements scalariform or pitted; non
septate fibres 500 to 1000 µ; circular starch grains 8 to 12 µ in diameter.
