Cultivation and Comparison study of Pharmacognostical and Phytochemical Properties of White and Black Mustard Plants Grown Under semi-Arid Conditions in Iraq.

Introduction : Mustard plant which belongs to the Brassicaceae family, the main species of this plant are white (B. alba L. )and (B. nigra L.) , the fixed oil of both species used for industrial and medicine purposes . Objective : There are no studies about the Pharmacognostical and phytochemical of mustard leaves in Iraq and little studies in all the world, therefore this study was conducted to investigated the Pharmacognostical or morphological with phytochemical characteristic of leaves of both white and black species were cultivated at medicinal plants garden of college of pharmacy of Al- Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad . Material and methods: The plants were cultivated at first of october at 2014 and when plants were reach at pre flowering stage the leaves of both species were collected ,washing and drying at room temperature in laboratory . chemical investigation was tested while the visual and microscopical investigated were carried out of fresh leaves Results and discussion : The Pharmacognostical study was showed the differences of stoma shape of both white and black mustard and referred to presence trichomes in B. nigra species with absence in B. alba species . The phytochemical results were referred to both species contained different active compounds . The leaves of black mustard were contained alkaloid and flavonoids while the white mustard leaves were contained terpenoid, saponin, glycoside and tannins. Conclusion: The presence of important active compounds of both species especially flavonoids and alkaloids of B. nigra lead to need more studies in determination and isolation of these active compounds .