HELIOTROPIUML. - HELIOTROPE
Scientific Description:
Suffruticose perennials and annual herbs. Leaves alternate, usually net-veined, softly hairy, rarely scabrous. Cymes usually ebracteate, rarely with a few bracts. Calyx usually divided to base, lobes acute. Corolla whitish to yellowish, tube and limb usually distinct; faucal appendages absent or rarely present. Anthers narrowly ovoid to lanceolate, included, filaments very short. Style terminal, eventually free between nutlets, bearing a depressed to elongate-conical stigmatic cone. Nutlets 4, free or rarely connate and forming a 1-seeded fruit by abortion of 3 of the loculi.
Reference:
Rield H (1978). Heliotropium L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 6: 248.
Public Description:
Heliotropium is a genus of perennial or annual herbs, commonly known as “heliotrope”, and is distributed in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate zones of all continents. There are approximately 156 species in the world and 16 species (16 taxa) in Türkiye. They have tube-shaped whitish to yellowish flowers. The name of “heliotrope” derives from the Greek word meaning “sun” and “trepein” meaning “to turn”, and refers to the plants turned their rows of flowers to the sun. They are known to contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids which have good biological activities such as antitumor, antibacterial, antifungal, insecticide, antispasmodic, mydriatic, as well as undesirable biological activities such as mutagenic, teratogenic and hepatotoxic activity.
References:
Anonymous 1 (2015). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliotropium, Accessed date: 22.12.2015.
Anonymous 2 (2015). http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/browse/A/Boraginaceae/Heliotropium/, Accessed date: 22.12.2015.
Roy A (2015). Pharmacological Activities of Indian Heliotrope (Heliotropium Indicum L.): A Review. J of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 4(3): 101-104.
Tosun F, Tamer U (2004). Determınatıon Of Pyrrolızıdıne Alkaloıds In The Seeds Of Helıotropıum Europaeum Bygc-Ms. J. Fac. Pharm 33(1)7-9.
Çıngay B (2012). Heliotropium L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 227−228.
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