Artemisia Caerulescens l. var. Cretacea Fiori: Indagine Morfologica,Anatomica ed Analitica

Abstract

ARTEMISIA CAERULESCENS L. var CRETACEA Fiori: its morphology, anatomy and santonin content. — Artemisia caerulescens L. var. cretacea Fiori, endemic of the loamy soils of Romagna and Tuscany, has been collected near Siena and specimens have been submitted to morphological, anatomical, systematic researchs.

The names of previous botanists who have collected this plant in the surroundings of Siena have been listed.

The big underground apparatus of Artemisia and the variable morphological characters of the species, expecially for the inflorescence, have been put in evidence.

The most outstanding anatomical characters of var. cretacea are the following:

1) in the overground stem (that means in the inflorescence axis) glandular hairs and T hairs are present, persisting also when the cork tissue is formed; the collateral vascular bundles are surrounded by a sclerenchymatic cap, outside the phloem; the parenchyma cells of the protoxylem area in the primary and secondary structure are not lignified; some cambial cells show lignified walls.

2) in the cortical parenchyma of the underground stem occur frequent cell division; the sclerenchyma cap cells are absent. The phloem is mixed with fibers and crossed by tangential parenchyma. Growth rings or sector rings are evident in the xylem; between the wood rings, layers of parenchyma are interposed. Several growth rings may be formed during one year.

3) the young root is triarch or tetrarch, the cells of the cortex undergo frequent divisions. The grown up root resembles closely the underground stem.

4) The leaves are isobilateral and provided with aquiferous parenchyma.

The flower buds of many Artemisia of the section Seriphidium, to which Artemisia caerulescens var. cretacea belongs, produce santonin which has anthelmintic properties.

The colorimetric determination of the drug contained in the var. cretacea had showed that it has a santonin content of g 0,56%.