[Microscopical and chemical study of Al Qaesoum [Achillea falcata[L]]]

ABSTRACT

Medicinal plants are considered as a major source of the therapy to obtain new components which have activities in curing and protecting from various diseases. al Qaesoum [Achillea falcate from the family Asteraceae] is one of those plants which spread widely in Syria, and used in the folk medicine as a reducing agent of the blood sugar, so that our study aimed to investigate the microscopial fragments of the powdered flowers to distinguish it from other species which belong to the same genus, and to determine the major and the active ingredients which may form the reason behind this use. Our plant was gathered from Soga [in the countryside of Damascus]; microscopical study and chemical investigation were done. The flowers [the used part] contain sugars in addition to fatty acids, and a high percentage of some metals in addition to alkaloids, coumarins, flavonoids [such as quercetin] and tannins