Middle East Journal of Agriculture Volume : 06| Issue : 02 | April-June | 2017 Research Pages:584-586 ISSN 2077-4605

Short Communications

A New Record of the Genus sp. () for the flora of Ali, W., Dayub, H., Aji F., Jaafar, A. and Ruba Yousef

Agricultural Research Station of El-Jemmaseh, Tartous provinces, Syria

Received: 08 May 2017 / Accepted: 20 June 2017 / Publication date: 28 June 2017

ABSTRACT

During roaming in the wild of Tartous Province, we have observed a strange in ignored land planted of Olive trees, the native people named it Toffah El-Jen, Mandragora sp. it was not noticed in Syrian flora therefor this is a new record.

Key words: Mandragora, flora, Syria.

Introduction

The flora of Arab Republic of Syria is rich of Mediterranean , annual or perennial, forests, north species, plants of arid, semi- arid and deserts, flora of Syria contains up to 3300 species with 131 families and 865 genera, where Syria represents the Irano-Turanian elements. is the common name for members of the Mediterranean plant genus Mandragora which belongs to the family Solanaceae. The name Mandragora is derived from two Greek words implying hurtful to cattle. The Arabs call it‘ Satan’s apple’’. It was also valued in ancient and Rome for its intoxicating and narcotic properties and was used as a surgical anesthetic (Hanus et al., 2005). Pedanius Dioscorides was the first whom describe the Mandrake plant. Dioscorides says that there is both a male and female mandrake the terms male and female do not refer to sex, but to two different species of Mandragora. The concept of this odd plant is surrounded with various myths and legends and recalls something mysterious, gloomy, and even horrible. Mandrake is among the long line of bewitching weeds, the most significant representative of magic power (Hanus et al., 2005). The genus Mandragora includes about 6 species, distributed in Mediterranean region in West to Himalayas in East (Dinarvand and Howeizeh, 2014). The mandrake is one of the plants which still grows widely in the Middle East (Harrison, 1956). The most known species in Mediterranean region are M. autumnalis Bertol. and M. officinarum L.; M. autumnalis distributed in ,, , , Palestine and West Costal of . This species has many synonyms as M. foemina, M. hispanica and M. haussknechtii Heldr.. The second species is M. officinarum L. distributed in and Yuogoslavia has 8 Synonyms (Checklist Catalogue of life, 2017). Hanus et al, 2006 were identified one-hundred and thirty-five compounds in extracts were obtained from the fruit of species M. autumnalis after removal of the seeds as n-alkanes, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, heterocyclic compounds, thio compounds, benzene hy-drocarbons, phenols, carboxylic acids and esters of carboxylic acids.

Habitat:

El-Jemmaseh town E35 57 24 N34 44 55 is located at Akkar level land region with 18000 ha in area, southern Tartous Province, costal of Syria; this region products a lot of crops, vegetables and rich of wild plants. This genus Mandragora was found in ignored land near of El-Jemmaseh Agricultural Researches Station.

Corresponding Author: Ali, W., Agricultural Research Station of El-Jemmaseh, Tartous provinces, Syria. E-mail: [email protected] 584 Middle East J. Agric. Res., 6(2): 584-586, 2017 ISSN: 2077-4605

Material and Methods

The plant was observed at April 2017 near the Station of Agricultural Researches, the native people name it (Toffah El-Jen), it was photographed, then some morphological characters were recorded at the field because of few numbers of it. Identification had been done through descriptions and comparative with references and some neighbor floras, in conclusion this few plants were belong to the genus Mandragora.

Results and Discussion

Mandragora sp. is perennial herb. Stem-less plant, all leaves arranged in rosette with 110 to 119 cm diameter, leaves are large measured 12.5 to 26 cm in widdth and 14 to 57.4 cm in length (including petiole), ovate to oblance-ovate, attenuate at the base, crenate serrate in margins; petiole long 8 to 12 cm (Fig. 1). Flowers axillary, have long pedicels 11.5 to 12 cm in length, sparsely hairy. Calyx 3.3 to 3.6 cm length at fruiting, lanceolate, with large lobes. Corolla 3 cm in length violate in color, oblance-ovate in shape. Style longer than , its long 2 cm. Fruit is globose, 2.9 cm in diameter to 5 cm before ripening, smooth, green and become yellowish at ripening (fig. 2)

Fig. 1: The shape of the plant illustrates the long leaves in rosette origin

B A

Fig. 2: Reproductive growth, A: The violate flowers and B: Berry fruit

We found this species grows in rarity of this region, so we avoid collecting many specimens, and therefore the morphological data are based on measurements made in the field.

References

Harrison, R.K., 1956. The mandrake and the ancient world. The evangelical Quarterly 28:(2 )87-92.

585 Middle East J. Agric. Res., 6(2): 584-586, 2017 ISSN: 2077-4605

Hanus, L. O., T.R. Ezanka, J. Spızek, and V. M. Dembitsky, 2005. Substances isolated fromMandragora species. Phytochemistry 66. 2408–2417. Hanus, L. O., V. M. Dembitsky and A. Moussaieff, 2006. Comparative study of volatile compounds in the fresh fruits of Mandragora autumnalis. ACTA Chromatographica, No. 17. Dinarvand, M. and H. Howeizeh, 2014. A new record of the genus Mandragora (Solanaceae) for the flora of Iran. Iran. J. Bot. 20 (2): 179-182. Tehran. http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/ 30th April 2017

586