The pharmacobotanical comparative study of leaves of Solanum crinitum Lam., Solanum gomphodes Dunal and Solanum lycocarpum A. St-Hil, (Solanaceae)

The pharmacobotanical comparative study of leaves of Solanum crinitum Lam., Solanum gomphodes Dunal and Solanum lycocarpum A. St-Hil, (Solanaceae)". In this work, a pharmacobotanical study of Solanum crinitum Lam., S. gomphodes Dunal and S. lycocarpum A. St-Hil., all belonging to the Solanum sect. Crinitum Child. has been realized with the objective of providing a macroscopical and microscopical morphodiagnosis for their characterizations. The three species are commonly named "jurubeba", "fruta-de-lobo" and "lobeira", and they are used in the folk medicine for the treatment of diabetes and other diseases. The three species studied share various morphological characters, like shrub and tree forms, the velutinous abaxial indument, the presence of bristles, the flower with stellate-pentagonal corollas ranging from violet to purple, and the fruit reaching up to 5 cm in diameter. The principal parameters to distinguish the three species studied were the morphology of petiole and base of the blade leaf, the indument of adaxial surface, the anatomy of mesophyll, the types of stomata and the leaf margin.