Guda:

Flowering thick-stemmed sugar cane Photograph by: Ton Rul

Morphology:

Drug occurs in form of root stock with attached yellowish-brown stem portion, having 10 to 15 cm long, numerous grey to blackish-brown fibrous roots; solid, jointed, more or less cylindrical, 2 to 2.5 cm thick and varying in length, rough; fracture, splintery; odour and taste, not distinct.

Growth Form: Tall clumping grass which can grow up to 6 m tall.

Foliage: Leaves are arching and linear or lanceolate (about 70 – 150 cm long, 3 – 6 cm wide). Leaves are large with conspicuous mid rib and sharply toothed leaf margin. Leaf sheath is loose mostly glabrous while being slightly hairy at the mouth. Ligule possesses small hairs too.

Stems: Stems occur in culms and are about 3 – 6 m tall, 20 – 45 mm in diameter. Culms are solid, juicy, and high in sugar content. Culms are jointed at nodes and have about 20 – 40 nodes. Internodes are often swollen and coloured.

Flowers: Flowers are plume-like and usually whitish grey. Panicle is large (50 – 100 cm long), often hairless but pilose at nodes.

Fruits: Seed is oblong and small (about 1.5 mm long).

Histology:

Root Stock – Shows single layered epidermis followed by 3 to 4 layers of oval to elliptical, lignified, thick-walled more or less radially elongated, sclerenchymatous cells; cortex consists of upper 12 to 15 layers oval to polygonal, thin-walled and lower 5 layers, elliptical, parenchymatous cells; endodermis single layered; pericycle 3 or 4 layers, sclerenchymatous; fibro-vascular bundle, covered with sclerenchymatous sheath, scattered throughout the ground mass of parenchymatous cells.

Root – Shows single layered epidermis of thin-walled, rectangular cells, followed by a layer of hypodermis of thin-walled, rectangular cells, outer cortex composed of 2 or 3 layers of thick-walled, polygonal to circular, sclerenchymatous cells filled with dark brown or blackish pigment, inner cortex composed of large mrenchymatous cells; endodermis composed of barrel-shaped, thin-walled cells, enclosing a layer of pericycle consisting of rectangular cells having inner wall thickened, and vascular tissue; xylem and phloem form an equal number of separate bundles. arranged in a ring; centre occupied by a large pith, composed of circular to oval, parenchymatous, thin-walled cells

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