Pharmacogonistic profile of FENUGREEK

1. FENUGREEK
Anirban Roy
BPHARM, 2nd Year, 4th
semester
Sec-A, Roll No.-06.
GURU NANAK INSTITUTE OF

2. CONTENTS
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Pharmacogonistic Profile
Macroscopic characters
Microscopic Characters of Seeds
Chemical Constituents
Pharmacological Profile

3. PHARMACOGONISTIC PROFILE
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BOTANICAL NAME
Trigonella foenum graecum
Fabaceae
FAMILY
PLANT PART USED
Seeds as well as the dried leaves
The Latin name for Fenugreek:
Trigonella, means "triangle shaped pale yellow flower", and
"foenum graecum" means "Greek hay".
• HABITAT
Indigenous to the countries on the
eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Cultivated in India,
Africa, Egypt, Morocco, and occasionally in England.

4. 3 leaflets
Fruit
Hard
yellowi
sh
brown
seed

5. MACROSCOPIC CHARACTERS
SEEDS
• Seeds are about 4-6mm long;
2-3mm wide & 2mm thick.
• They are hard; yellowish
brown in color.
• Irregularly rhomboidal in
outline & flattened, with a
deep furrow dividing into 2
unequal lobes.
• They are contained, ten to
twenty together, in
long, narrow, sickle-like pods.
• Taste, bitter and peculiar.
• Odour, spicy.
LEAVES
• long stalked leaves up to 5
cm long .
• stipules triangular,
lanceolate.
• leaflets about 2.5 cms long,
• obovate to obanceolate in
shape.

6. MICROSCOPIC CHARACTERS OF SEEDS
• Transverse section:
1. Testa—the outermost layer is covered with cuticle and composed
of thick-wall, cylindrical, lignified cells with conical projections, through
which a white line, linea lucida, extends across; middle layer of testa
composed of cells with thick-walls and wide intercellular spaces near
their tops; inner section of testa composed of a few layers of
narrow, tangentially elongated, compact, thin-wall parenchyma cells.
2. Endosperm—outer layer consists of rectangular to polygonal
thick-wall cells, full of aleurone grains; multiple layers of cells of
various shapes, large, full of mucilage.
3. Cotyledons—a layer of epidermal cells with thick walls; 3–4
layers of cells containing oil globules; a few layers of spongy tissue.
A. vertical section showing radicle, one of the
cotyledons & hilum, n.
B. transverse section showing radicle,r ; both
cotyledons, c ; & endosperm, e

7. CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS
• Amino acids: 4-Hydroxyisoleucine, 4hydroxyisoleucine
lactone, arginine, histidine, and lysine.
• Steroidal saponins: Trigoneoside IIa, Ib;
graecunins H, I, J, K, L, M, N; trigofoenosides
A, D,F, G; protogracillin; protodioscin; and
diosgenin
• Alkaloids: Trigonelline, gentianine, and carpaine
• Flavonoids:
Apigenin, luteolin, orientin, quercetin, vitexin, an
d isovitexin
• Carbohydrates: Mainly mucilage

8. PHARMACOLOGICAL PROFILE
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Analgesic effects
Antiadhesive properties
Anticarcinogenesis effects
Antitumor activity
Antioxidant activity
Antiplatelet activity
Exercise recovery effects
Hepatoprotective activity
Lipid-lowering effects
Galactagogue effects

9. REFERENCES
• 1. Kirtikar and Basu; “Indian Medicinal plants” International
Book Distributors, 9/3, Rajpur Road (Ist floor) Dehradun248001, India, Vol. I, Page. No.700-701.
• 2. “The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India”, Part- I, volume
II, First edition , Govt. of India Ministry of health
Education, Page No. 107-108.
• 3. Prajapati, Purohit, Sharma and Kumar; “A Handbook of
Medicinal Plants- A Complete Source Book”, Published by
Agrobios (India), 2003, Page No.523.
• 4. Rastogi & Mehrotra, B.N.; “Compendium of Indian
Medicinal Plants”, PID, New Delhi, 1990, volume II, Page
No. 422.

10. THANK YOU