Ammi visnaga - Arasi Lawrence Company

Ammi visnaga (L.) Lam.

Latin (Botanical) name: Ammi visnaga (L.) Lam. = Daucus visnaga L.

Family: Apiaceae (Carrot family), Umbelliferae.

Common name: Ammi, Khilla, Khella, Khillal, Khilaala, Howeida, Khillah, Khelal, Khilla Baladi, Gazar Sheitani, Kammoun Habashi, Bizr Khellah, Tabellaout, Pick-tooth, Toothpick, Bishop’s weed, Herbe aux cure-dents, Fruits de Khella, Zahnstocherkraut, Visnaga Früchte, Bischofskraut Früchte, Fructus Ammi visnaga.

Berber name: Tabellaout.

English name: Pick-tooth, Tooth pick, Bishop’s weed.

French name (Français): Herbe aux cure-dents.

German (Deutsch): Zahnstocherkaut.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

Origin: Egypt

Plant description:

UMBELLIFERAE A. Juss. : Not spiny. Not so (Leaves undivided with entire margin). Umbel-rays not woolly. Leafy herbs, root not globose. Bracteoles present (= the narrow leaves supporting the small secondary umbels). Fruit beakless. Fruit spineless. Fruit cylindrical, ovoid or globose. Leaves thin. Bracts present (= the narrow leaves supporting the large primary umbel). Leaves irregularly dissected.

AMMI L. : Annual weeds. Bracts and bracteoles present, filiform. Flowers white. Fruit small ovoid.

Leaf-segments capillary.

AMMI VISNAGA (L.) Lam. : Stout tall plant with thick stem. Umbel very dense of numerous, up to 80 rays, in fruit contracted frutescent. (Ann.). Weed. Ray used as toothpicks.

Source: STUDENTS’ FLORA OF EGYPT second edition, by VIVI TÄCKHOLM, D. Sc. (Stockholm) Professor of Systematic Botany, Faculty of Science, Cairo University. Published by Cairo University. Printed by COOPERATIVE PRINTING COMPANY Beirut, 1974.

Morphological Description:

Stout, tall, winter annual, with thick stem and pinnatisect leaves. Umbel rays, dense (ca 80 per umbel), with very numerous long stiff rays and white flowers. The rays spread in flower and become contracted in fruit. Bracts of the involucre, long, filiform and tripartite. The fruiting pedicels are thick and frutescent. Fruit, ovate, laterally compressed, with thick ribs, brownish with violet tinge and splitting into two mericarps.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

Parts Used:

a. The fruits:

Arabic: Bizr Khellah.

English: Ammi visnaga fruit, Visnaga fruit.

French: Fruits de Khella.

German: Visnaga Früchte, Bischofskraut Früchte.

Latin: Fructus Ammi visnaga.

b. Toothpicks: At fruiting, the rays become frutescent, curved and used as tooth picks.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

Propagation: Fruits (seeds).

Khella contains not more than 10.0% of its stalks and foreign organic matter, and yields not less than 1.0% of the nongylcosidal furanochromone derivatives, calculated as khellin.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

Status:

The plant is easily cultivated as a winter crop in Egypt. Numerous studies have been undertaken as regards the effect of manure and fertilizers on the yield of the plant. However, there is a great need to conserve the good genetic characters in some cultivars. The plant is safe and is not subjected to threatening impacts.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

Description:

Odo(u)r, slightly aromatic; taste, aromatic, bitter and slightly pungent. Macroscopical: Fruit, cremocarp, usually separated into its 2 mericarps, rarely entire, with a part of the pedicel attached. Mericarp, small, ovoid, about 2 mm long and 1 mm broad; crowned with a disc-like nectary, the stylopod; brownish to greenish-brown with a violet tinge (Distinction from Ammi majus); externally, glabrous, marked with 5 distinct, pale brownish, rather broad primary ridge and 4 inconspicuous dark secondary ridges; internally, the mericarp shows a pericarp with 6 vittae, 4 in the dorsal and 2 in the commissural side, a large oily orthospermous endosperm and a small apical embryo. Carpophore, single, no split; passing at the apex into the raphe of each mericarp.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

Microscopical: Epidermis of pericarp consists of polygonal cells, elongated on the ridges, with occasional crystals of calcium oxalate and finely striated cuticle; on hairs. Mesocarp, formed of parenchyma, traversed longitudinally by the schizogenous vittae, each surrounded by large, slightly radiating cells, and traversed in the ridges by vascular bundles, each forming a crescent around a comparatively large vitta (Distinction from Ammi majus L. = Apium ammi Crantz.) and accompanied by fibres and reticulate, lignified cells; the innermost layer of the mesocarp consists of large, polygonal, brown-walled cells, with thick porous inner walls. Endocarp. Composed of narrow tangentially elongated cells; some of these being regularly arranged in groups, variously oriented, adhering to the brown seed-coat which is formed of similar but wider and somewhat shorter cells. Endosperm consists of polygonal, thick-walled, cellulosic parenehyma, containing fixed oil and numerous small oval aleurone grains, each enclosing a minute rounded globoid and a micro-rosette crystal of calcium oxalate with a dark center. Carpophore, traversed by a vascular strand of fibres and spiral vessels.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

Constituents:

1. Furanochromones (-py-ones): 2 - 4% comprising khellin (0.3 – 1.2%), visnagin (0.05 – 0.3), khellol and its glucoside, khellenin, khellinol, ammiol and its glucoside, visammiol, khellinone, visnaginone.

2. Pyranocoumarins (visnagans): 0.2 – 0.5 comprising visnadin, samidin and dihydrosamidin.

3. Furanocoumarins: traces of xanthotoxin and ammidin.

4. Flavonoids: 0.02 – 0.03% comprising quercetin and isorhamnetin and their 3-sulphates as well as kaempferol.

5. Volatiles: containing among other compounds: camphor, carvone, (-terpineol, terpinen-4-ol, linalool, cis and trans linalool oxides.

6. Fixed oil: 12 – 18%.

7. Protein: 14%.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

Folk Medicinal Uses:

Fruit, diuretic, appetizer, carminative, stimulant vasodilator, antispasmodic, for urinary disorders, angina pectoris, asthma, and the infusion releases renal stones.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

Pharmacological Actions and Indications:

The drug acts as spasmolytic, especially on the musculature of the bronchi, gasterointestinal tract, biliary tract, urinogenital system, the coronary vessels and also as diuretic.

Using K+(60mM)-depolarized guinea pig aortic strips, the involvement of a Ca²+ channel blocking mode of action could be established.

Vasnadin exhibits peripheral and coronary vasodilator activities and has been used for the treatment of angina pectoris.

The drug is indicated in whooping cough, cramp-like conditions of gasterointestinal tract, biliary colic, painful menstruation, for removal of small bladder and kidney stones, and in angina pectoris and bronchial asthma. Khellin may have a role to play in the treatment of vitiligo and psoriasis.

Phytomedicines containing standardized extracts are included in cardiac remedies, bronchospasmolytics, spasmolytics, urological remedies and coronary remedies.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

Adulterants and Substitutes:

May be adulterated or substituted by fruits of Ammi majus L. = Apium ammi Crantz. which can be detected by macro- and microscopical examination and tests for furanocoumarins.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

Authentication:

1. Macro- and microscopically following Egyptian Pharmacopoeia 1984.

2. Pyrones not less than 4% calculated as Khellin.

3. Foreign matter not more than 2%.

4. Loss on drying not more than 10%.

5. Ash not more than 10%, acid-insoluble ash not more than 3.5%.

6. Fruit of Ammi majus L. = Apium ammi Crantz. should be absent.

7. Absence of starch.

8. Boil about 0.05g of Khella with 5ml of water for a minute, strain, add 1 or 2 drops of this decoction to 1ml of solution of sodium hydroxide (1 in 1), and shake; a rose-red colo(u)r is produced within 2 minutes.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

Economic Potencial:

The plant is and will continue to be of high economic potential for the widespread use of its galenicals as well as Khellin in the phytotherapy of urinary tract problems. The local supply is not sufficient for the pharmaceutical industry. Farmers are not willing to cultivate the plant due to the fluctuating prices from year to year.

Source: Wild Medical Plant in Egypt. An Inventory to support Conservation and Sustainable Use. BATANOUNY K. H.

References:

1. Aboutabl, E.A. and Hassan, M.M.A. 1979. PMR assay of natural products in pharmaceuticals. II: assay of Khellin and simultaneous detection and determination pf Visnagin. Spectroscopy Letters 12(5): 351-363.

2. Durate, J.; Perez-Vizcaino, F.; Torres, A.I. ; Zarzuelo, A. ; Jimenez, J. and Tamargo, J. 1995. Vasodilator effects of Visnagin in isolated rat vascular smooth muscle. Eur. J. Pharmacol. 286 (2): 115-122.

3. Durate, J.; Vallejo, L.; Perez-Vizcaino, F.; Jimenez, R.; Zarzuelo, A. and Tamarjo, J. 1997. Effects of Visnadin on rat isolated vascular smooth muscles. Planta Med. 63 (3): 233-236.

4. El-Domiaty, M.M. 1992. Improved high performance liquid chromatographic determination of Khellin and Visnagin in Ammi visnaga fruits and pharmaceutical formulations. J. Pharm. Sci. 81 (5): 475-478.

5. Kandil, A. and Galal, E.E. 1975. Pharmacological assessment of new oral hypoglycaemic agents. J. Drug Res. 7: 109.

6. Le Quesne, P.W. et al. 1985. Furocoumarine from fruit of Ammi visnaga. J. Nat. Prod. 48: 496.

7. Martelli, P. et al. 1984. Rapid separation and quantitative determination of khellin and visnagin in Ammi visnaga (L.) Lam. fruit by high-performance liquid chromatography. J. Chromatogr. 301: 297.

8. Rauwald, H.W.; Brehm, O. and Odenthal, K.P. 1994. The involvement of a Ca²+ channel blocking mode of action in the pharmacology of Ammi visnaga fruits. Planta Med. 60 (2): 101-105.

9. Schimmer, O.; Beck, R. and Dirtz, U. 1980. Phototoxizit%t und photomutagenit%t von furocumarinen und furocumarindrogen bei Chlamydomonas reinhardii. Planta Med. 40: 68.

10. Tjarks, L.W.; Spencer, G.F. and Seest, E.P. 1989. Isolation and 1H and 13CNMR of ammiol and khellol glucosides. J. Nat. Prod. 52: 655.

Last Update December 2^nd, 2002.

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