Trigonella berythea (Beirut fenugreek, Arabic: حلبة بيروت) is a plant species in the legume family. It natural habitat is the subtropical biome and endemic to the Eastern Mediterranean.[2]
| Trigonella berythea | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Fabales |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Subfamily: | Faboideae |
| Genus: | Trigonella |
| Species: | T. berythea
|
| Binomial name | |
| Trigonella berythea | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
|
Trigonella foenum-graecum var. berythea (Boiss. & C.I.Blanche) Post | |
Description
editFirst published in Pierre Edmond Boissier's Diagnoses plantarum Orientalium novarum in 1856.[3][4] The plant is annual with white hairs sparsely scattered on the branches and petioles, especially hairy on the upper side. The stems are erect or ascending, sparsely branched. The stipules are ovate, with a very short acuminated tip, attached to the petiole at the lower part of the stipule. The petiole is equal in length to or longer than the leaflets, which are obovate, with a cuneate base, and have the upper side slightly obtuse and only obscurely dentate. The sepal is tubular, cylindrical, with lanceolate-subulate teeth that are almost subequal. The petal is almost double the length of the sepal, the legumes are straight, linear, subcompressed, longitudinally pressed parallel, and slightly wrinkled, with a beak about half its length, abruptly shortened at the end. This species is closely related to Trigonella foenum-graecum but differs from it in the narrower and longer stipules, the oblong-spathulate leaflets with ciliate teeth, the legumes which are less compressed and have a more strongly marked reticulated surface, traversed by fine nerves that are somewhat distant from each other.[3]
Etymology
editBerythea refers to Beirut, specifically to Ras Beirut, where the plant was first described.[3]
Distribution and habitat
editThe plant grows in the subtropical biome,[4] and is endemic to Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and the Sinai Peninsula.[5][4] The species was discovered by Emmanuel-Louis Blanche, observed in April 1843 and 1850 near the promontory of Ras Beirut, and in the hills and foothills of the Lebanon mountains above Sidon.[3]
Research
editFarhan et al. reported that Trigonella berythea originating from Syria and Lebanon exhibited cytotoxic activity. Ethanol and Aqueous extracts of the plant, namely the leaves and stem, inhibited the growth by 60% of MCF7 (breast cancer) and U937 cell lines.[6][7]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Trigonella berythea Boiss. & C.I.Blanche | COL". www.catalogueoflife.org. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
- ^ "BioLib: Biological library".
- ^ a b c d Boissier, Edmond (1856). Diagnoses Plantarum Orientalium Novarum, Series 2. 2 (in Latin). Vol. 2. pp. 10–11.
- ^ a b c "Trigonella berythea Boiss. & C.I.Blanche | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
- ^ "Lebanon Flora". www.lebanon-flora.org. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
- ^ Farhan, Hussein; Rammal, Hassan; Hijazi, Akram; Annan, Houssein; Daher, Ahmad; Reda, Mohamad; Badran, Bassam (2013). "Chemical composition, in vitro cytotoxicity and anti-free radical properties of six extracts from Lebanese Trigonella berythea Boiss". Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 26 (6): 1157–1163. ISSN 1011-601X. PMID 24191321.
- ^ Abu-Darwish, Mohammad S.; Efferth, Thomas (2018-01-31). "Medicinal Plants from Near East for Cancer Therapy". Frontiers in Pharmacology. 9: 56. doi:10.3389/fphar.2018.00056. ISSN 1663-9812. PMC 5797783. PMID 29445343.
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