Rumex, belongs to the family Polygonaceae, is a genus with 149 species, distributed in temperate regions. Rumex maritimus, an aquatic annual herb, called as Golden dock, found in many parts of the world. In India, it is abundant in north eastern states, where it is used as vegetable and locally called as Torang Khongchak, Bonchuka or Ban Palang. In Ayurveda seeds are called as ‘Jangli Palak’ and in trade they are called as ‘Beejband’. It is also reported from few other parts of India as weed in wheat field or as vegetable used by tribes. Leaves and seeds are medicinally useful in indigenous systems of medicine and in folklore too. It is reported that seeds of Sida cordifolia and Abutilon indicum are also used as ‘Beejband’. Phytochemical constituents of seeds are reported. Cytotoxic, membrane stabilizing and antimicrobial activities of seeds were studied. Though the seeds are commercially available, useful in indigenous systems of medicine and also used by AYUSH industries as active herbal raw material, scientific study on this plant is scarce. This article describes the pharmacognostical characters of seeds or fruits. Diagnostic features of the fruits are the presence of 2 or 4 needle like appendages and a tubercle in each of the persistent tepal. Microscopically, undifferentiated and single veined tubercle is the characteristic feature. Achenes are triangular in CS with two cotyledons embedded in the starchy endosperm. The substitutes, S. cordifolia and A. indicum do not have persistent calyx lobes, tubercles or needle like appendages, thus they can be easily identified with their morphological characters itself.
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