Objective: Justicia gendarussa Burm. (family Acanthaceae) commonly known as nilinirgundi, is found in Southern India possesses multifarious biological activities due to large range of phytoconstituents. The present study is designed to evaluate the various pharmacognostic parameters of the leaves of J. gendarussa, found in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand for its authentication.Methods: Fresh leaves were taken for the morphological and microscopical (histology and powder) evaluation.

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... ical parameters (ash values, extractives values, florescence analysis, microbial contamination, and loss on drying) were also performed. Phytochemical screening and thin-layer chromatographic fingerprinting of extracts were also performed to check the presence of various phytoconstituents.Results: The microscopy of the leaves evinced the presence of anisocytic stomata, cuboidal calcium oxalate crystals, cystoliths, multicellular covering trichomes, starch grains and oil globules. The quantitative estimation of total ash, acid insoluble, and water soluble ash values were 13.8%, 1.2%, and 4.5% w/w, respectively. The alcohol soluble and water soluble extractives were estimated as 11.45% and 15.67% w/w, respectively. Foreign organic matter and loss on drying values obtained were 0.23% and 11.2% w/w. Phytochemical screening of petroleum ether, chloroform, methanol and aqueous extracts ascertained the presence of alkaloids, phenolic compounds, saponins, tannins, carbohydrates, flavonoids, glycosides, steroids and triterpenoids. The thin-layer chromatography (TLC) profiling of different extracts revealed the presence of potential compounds which can be further isolated with the help of high-performance liquid chromatography or high-performance TLC.Conclusion: The results of this study provide suitable standards for the authentication of this plant. In the present study, there are certain variations observed from the evaluations done on the same species by other research groups. The probable reason suggested for such disparity is due to the environmental and geographical differences in the locations of the plant collected.