Romanian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences
 

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A COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL STUDY OF THE SEEDS FROM TRIGONELLA FOENUM GRAECUM (L.) AND T. CAERULEA (L.) SER. SPECIES

MIHAELA DINU1, ROBERT ANCUCEANU1*, VALERIA RĂDULESCU2, DIANA-CAROLINA ILIEŞ2, CORNEL MUNTEANU3, CORINA ARAMĂ4

1Department of Pharmaceutical Botany and Cell Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, 6 Traian Vuia, Bucharest 020956, Romania
2Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, 6 Traian Vuia, Bucharest 020956, Romania
3Institute of Physical Chemistry "Ilie Murgulescu"
4Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, 6 Traian Vuia, Bucharest 020956, Romania

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While the seeds of Trigonella foenum-graecum (L.) are relatively widely used as a spice and seasoning in food and as a traditional herbal medicinal product, those of T. caerulea have a more limited use and are rather ignored. We report on a comparative study of the surface morphology (investigated by scanning electron microscopy), of alcoholic extracts prepared from the seeds of the two species (analysed through HPLC) and of their fatty acid composition (investigated through GC, after derivatization with methanol). There are important differences in the seed morphology, the epidermis cells (macrosclereids) of T. foenum-graecum seeds are very narrow (6.4 x 8.4 μm; SD 0.8 μm and 0.8 μm) and those of T. caerulea are still narrower (4.4 x 5.2 μm; SD 0.6 and 0.5 μm, respectively). The HPLC chromatograms of the alcoholic seed extracts from the two species revealed at least seven peaks specific for T. foenum-graecum only, and three for T. caerulea only, suggesting a different chemical composition. Quercetin, myricetin and kaempferol, used as reference substances were not detected in the extracts. The qualitative and quantitative compositions of the various fatty acids do not indicate substantial differences between the two species: in the seeds from both species linoleic and linolenic (around 40% each), palmitic (around 10%) and stearic acids (2-4%) are the most important components.