Macro‑micromorphological characterization of the medicinal species Matthiola incana (L.) W. T. Aiton and Erysimum × cheiri (L.) Crantz

Matthiola incana (M) and Erysimum × cheiri (E), belonging to the Brassicaceae family, are species acknowledged in the traditional medicine of different countries (Liang Jin et al. 2016, Mosleh et al. 2019) (Fig. 1). Their several uses in international medicine depend on the type and quantity of the active compounds contained, such as terpenes, steroids, alkaloids, glucosides, flavonoids and phenols (Erum et al. 2017, Miceli et al. 2019). In Italy both species are known by the common name “violaciocca” and used for magical, religious and medicinal purposes. M. incana is mentioned as emetic, laxative, for the treatment of cough and skin infections; E. x cheiri is indicated as a diuretic and to treat sprains, but used at low doses, as it contains potentially toxic cardiotonic heterosides (Guarrera 2006). The distinctive features of these two species were identified through macro and micro‐morphological analysis (LM and SEM). The observations showed the following characteristics: colour of the flowers: purple/pink in M; yellow/ochre/purple in E; type of floral and leaf trichomes: unicellular, branched, starred, with smooth surfaces in M; T‐shaped with two bifurcated arms, calcified and warty in E; type of stomata: anisocytic and anomocytic in both species; type of petal papillae: pointed in M, rounded in E; type of pollen: spheroidal, inaperturate with conspicuously cross‐linked ornamentation in M; tricolpate with reticulated ornamentation in E. Botanical morphological characteristics are recognizable even in the plant material in the form of fragments, as in the case of herbal preparations used on the market (Abdel Khalik et al 2005).