Micro-Morphology Of Fruit In Some Species Of Asteraceae To Identify The Real Chamomile

Chamomile (a generic name for Anthemis nobilis L.) is one of the oldest known medicinal herbs. A. nobilis, commonly is famous as real chamomile, is a beautiful and fragrant plant that often grows on the grass and sandy ground. Chamomile is an endemic plant of the Mediterranean region, but its originated from Asia Minor. Today, it is widely distributed in Europe, Africa, America and Australia, and Iran. Its species are found in the Irano-Turanian region. Chamomile flowers are useful in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries, due to their essential oils such as anthemine, tannin, phytosterol and Anthemique acid. Other species of Tripleurospermum, Matricaria and Tanacetum that are morphologically similar to A. nobilis, including Tripleurospermum disciforme (false chamamilla), Matricaria chamamilla (German chamomile) and Tanacetum parthenium (feverfew), are available in the market, but only two species of A. nobilis and M. chamamilla have medicinal properties. These species are diverse in floral structure, shape and color of leaves, and trichomes on their stem, but it is difficult to classify them only with these characteristics. Current study aimed to present the micromorphological characters of achene and classify different chamomile species. The species were investigated using stereo microscope and electron microscope(SEM). Our results showed that presence of gland, rib, corona and different sculpturing on achene could providing characters to separate species from each other. Also it was demonstrated that micromorphological characters of achene are a better way to identify real chamomile than other similar species to extract active compounds for using the medicinal properties

کلیدواژه ها:

Medicinal plants ، Tripleurospermum ، Matricaria ، Tanacetum ، Achenes