Species Determination of Osyris quadripartita Salz. ex Decne. (African Sandalwood) Based on Anatomical Characteristics

The present study highlights about species determination of Osyris quadripartita Salz. Ex Decne. (African Sandalwood) based on anatomical characteristics. Wood anatomical characteristics of O. quadripartita were observed in different characters such as seriation of rays, type of crystalliferous cells, and abundance of extractives. Santalaceae is a significant family in medicine. Osyris quadripartita Salz. ex Decne. has been used medicinally for a variety of conditions, including eye pain, cold, anaphylactic shock, epilepsy, circumcision wounds, toothache, tonsillitis, abdominal pain, urine problems, breast cancer, mental health issues, and anti-coronavirus diseases. Antihelmintic and leishmaniasis diseases, abnormalities, kidney disease, forage, hygienic/ perfuming, and so on. Additionally, reports of its antiviral and anti-ulcer properties have been made. Santalum album and O. quadripartita belong to the same family santalaceae and have many similarities in their morphological characteristics. Both plant species belong to the same family, that is why anatomical characters help to resolve this problem and easy to distinguish most wood anatomical characteristics. Therefore, distinguishing one from the other anatomically is very easy.

The anatomical sections of the stem Transverse Section (TS), Transverse Longitudinal Section (TLS) and Radial Longitudinal Section (RLS) of the species were observed under the bright-field compound binocular microscope, and characters were documented. Microscopically preliminary observation reported ray cells containing rhomboidal crystals are the unique diagnostic characters reported in O. quadripartita. The arrangement of cortical tissues, pericyclic fibers, phloem fibers, and phloem rays are among the characteristics that help distinguish between the stem and petiole of the various species. Cells, and an abundance of extractives. Ray cells frequently contain rhomboidal crystals. In the cortex, and pith region of the stem observed solitary crystals. Based on the preliminary study, the species can be differentiated from other species of the same family based only on anatomical characters.