Morphological and Phytochemical Study of Indigenous Ovata of Golestan Province in Iran

Isabgol (Plantago ovata) belonging to Plantaginaceae sugar reducer. Lots of these plants grow wildly in some parts of Golestan province. An appropriate method for specifying the selection criteria is gathering its indi genous species and evaluating the morphological characteristics that determine its yield. The present study was conducted to investigate the morphological and phytochemical characteristics of different Isabgol plants un Azadshahr weather conditions. To this end, plant seeds from four different habitats (Incheboron, Duzavlom, Gharamakher and Aramgah) were gathered and cultivated in the form of completely randomized blocks with 4 replications during March, 2011. The traits under evaluation were spike numbe r and length, grain number per spike, plant height, grain weight, mucilage rate and percentage, inflation factor and inflation rate per gram of mucilage. The obtained data were analyzed applying SPSS software. Analysis of variance indicated no significant differences among the investigated plants in terms of plant height, spike number per plant and inflation factor. However, spike length, grain numbers per spike and 1000 seeds weight were significantly different the plants at.05 level of significance. Moreover, plant seeds were significantly different in terms of mucilage rate, mucilage percentage, and inflation rate per gram of mucilage at.01 level of significance. The minimum means of spike lengths (9.16 mm) in Inchebor mass and the other three Pla ntago species were not significantly different. Comparison of the average grain numbers per spike also showed the highest grain numbers in Gharamakher (19.25 number) and the lowest spike numbers in Incheboron (15.61 number) and Duzavlom (15.95 number) plan ts. Besides, the highest and the lowest mucilage rates were related to Gharamakher (0.259 gr) and Incheboron (0.168 gr) species.