Morphological characteristics of plants medicinal seeds of some species belonging to Apiaceae family in the region of Sétif, Algeria
Meriem Hani 1* Mounira Merghem2 and Habiba Boukhabti 1
1Laboratory of Natural Resource Valorisation, Faculty of Nature Life Sciences, Ferhat Abbas University Setif-1, 19000 Setif (Algeria) 2Laboratory of Phytotherapy Applied to Chronic Diseases, Department of Biology and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Natural and Life Sciences, Ferhat Abbas University, Sétif (Algeria) E-mail: hani.meriem@yahoo.fr
ABSTRACT
The seed morphology of eight species of plants medicinal belonging to Apiaceae family is presented. As a result of the study, the shape of seeds is showed a large variation among the investigated species. Most of seeds have oval to oblong shape (Anethum graveolens L., Foeniculum vulgare Mill., Daucus carota subsp. Maximus, Anisosciadium lanatum Boiss.) and others are linear (Carum carvi L., Pimpinella anisum L.) , spherical (Coriandrum sativum L.) or reniform in shape (Petroselinum crispum (Mill). The color varies from grayishgreen to grayish-brown, yellow-brown, light brown, greenish-yellow, greenish-brown reddish- brown, greenish-brown, yellow to orangy- or reddish- brown, grayish-green to grayish-yellow, grayish-green, light creamy yellow to yellow, brown, yellow dark to brown. Seeds dimensions vary greatly among the examined species. Seed morphological characteristics proved to be useful taxonomic features, helpful in identification of large number of species and genera.