Comparative study on the morphology, palynology and essential oil composition of three trigonella L. species (Fabaceae) from Iran

Trigonella L. is one of the important genera of the family Fabaceae, many species of which have nutritional and medicinal properties. In this investigation, morphological characters related to habit and pollen grain of three Trigonella species i.e., T. disperma, T. subenervis and T. aphanoneura were studied. Oils from the aerial parts of two species were investigated by GC and GC/MS methods and compared with T. disperma, which had been studied in advance. T. subenervis represented oils rich in spathulenol (15.1%). It also contained a small amount of germacrene D (0.6%). T. aphanoneura also represented oils rich in spathulenol (10.4%). The amount of four compounds in this species was ≤1%, and n-octyl acetate was the lowest component in quantity. According what we found out, phytochemical and morphological data could clarify the relationships among the Trigonellaspecies better than pollen morphological data.