A Study of some Morphological and Essential Oil Characteristics of Spartium junecum L.

Abstract

Spartium junecum L. was collected from Baksa in Lattakia, Syria, and studied morphologically depending on characteristics of plant life-form, flowers, leaves, fruits and seeds according to specialized floras, in addition to some characteristics of stomata types, trichomes, pollen grains and fibers that have been demonstrated by this study. The study of the leaves stomata confirmed the presence of 4 types, namely; anisocytic, isotricytic, brachyparahexacytic, and tetracytic. The type of trichomes was the same in all the studied areas, which is: non-glandular trichomes with different densities. Pollen grains were, tricolpate, triangular, the dimensions of the polar axis and equatorial axis were (35µm), and (31µm), respectively. Spartium junecum L. cellulose fibers were extracted by DiCoDe method (digestion–compression–decompression). The morphology of the obtained fibers was studied by optical microscopy (OM). The results showed that Spartium junecum L. fibers are elementary fibers arranged in bundles. The diameter of a single elementary fiber ranged from 7 to 10μm approximately, while the diameter of the whole bundle was about (50μm). The cross-sections showed an irregular polygonal shape with a very much characterized lumen. The essential oil isolated by hydrodistillation from the dried flowers of Spartium junceum L. was investigated by Gas Chromatography-Mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method. The GC/MS analysis of the oil revealed the presence of 6 constituents, of which heptacosene (28.75%), 3-ethyl-5-(2-ethylbutyl)-octadecane (22.45%), heptacosane (21.2%) and heneicosane (18.82%) were the major compounds constituting altogether almost 91.22% of the total composition.