Phenotypic, anatomical and phytochemical investigation of Iraqi Silybum marianum

Abstract

Asteraceae (Compositae) famous as the aster, daisy or sunflower family is the biggest flowering family divided into thirteen subfamily that involve approximately two thousand genus, an important member of this family is Silybum marianum (Milk thistle). Management of hepatic diseases is the main use of milk thistle in traditional medicine also it has anticancer activity against different type of cancer in addition to antiviral, antioxidant, antiinflammatory and anti-diabetic activity. This study was designed to investigate the pharmacognostical feature and the phytochemical ingredient of Iraqi Silybum marianum. The plant were examined macroscopically to investigate the morphological characters of plant and microscopically to determine the type of stomata and trachoma then flowers, leaves, stems and seeds of the plant were extracted by ethanol in a soxhlet apparatus individually and subjected to standard methods for active constituents identification and that total flaononid, total phenolic and total tannins content were determined using aluminum chloride colorimetric, folin-ciocaltue and acidified vanillin methods respectively. The results shows that Silybum marianum leave have a thick cell wall, anomocytic stomata, annual vessel, and unicellular unbranched trichomas. Also an important active constituents have been detected that terpenes, steroid and flavonoids were present in all plant parts, saponin appear only in the leaves and stems while alkaloids and coumarins are not detected in any part. Also the study referred to the seeds as the richest part of the plant with flavonoid and phenolic compounds followed by the flowers, leaves and stems which contain the less amount, while the higher content of tannin were observed in the leaves and stems..