The search for promising sources of useful plants is an urgent task. Of particular interest among medicinal plants is the genus Saussurea. Plants of the genus Saussurea are known as promising, widely used in folk medicine. In Kazakhstan, Saussurea elegans is poorly studied, so we conducted resource studies of Saussurea elegans growing on the right bank of the Terekta river valley in Zhetysu Alatau, and also conducted a morphoanatomical study of the vegetative organs of Saussurea elegans plants. The diagnostically important features of the air part are determined, which can be used as characteristics of the original raw material.
The object of the study was the root, stem, leaf of Saussurea elegans. The raw material was collected in the period of 2020 during the flowering phase on the right side of the Terekta river valley in Zhetysu Alatau. A morphological and anatomical study was carried out on the vegetative organs of Saussurea elegans plants. Diagnostically significant signs of the above-ground part, which can be used as characteristics of the authenticity of raw materials, are determined.
The conducted morphological and anatomical studies showed a 3-row layer of the periderm in the aboveground organs on the surface of the root. Periderm cells have a round, elongated and rectangular shape, tightly connected and strongly elongated in the radial direction. The features of the anatomical structure of the stems are the presence of a cuticle with well-defined edges, under which there is a single-layer epidermis. The peculiarities of the anatomical structure of the leaves are the presence of schizogenic receptacles, which are located mainly under the central vascular bundle in the central part of the leaf blade.