Identification and Evaluation of Morphological and Phytochemical Characteritics in Some Hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) Species in Iran

Hawthorn, as the general name for the species of Crataegusgenus belonged to Rosaceae family, is of horticultural crops with medicinal characteristics. In this study, several species of hawthorn including Crataegus monogyna, Crataegus meyeri, Crataegus pseudoheterophylla, Crataegus pentagyna and Crataegus pontica were identified in Taleghan region of Alborz province, Iran and then, evaluated based on morphological and phytochemical charactersitcs. Results of analysis of variance for morphological characters including leaf length, leaf width, ratio of leaf length to leaf width, fruit length, fruit diameter, ratio of fruit legth to fruit diameter and 1000 seed weight revealed the existence of divergence for Hawthorn germplasm in Iran and significant differences among the studied species. Among studied species, C. pontica had the maximum values of studied morphological characters exception of ratio of leaf length to leaf width and ratio of fruit legth to fruit diameter. There were significant differences among studied species based on phytochemical characters. Species including Crataegus meyeri, Crataegus pseudoheterophylla, Crataegus pentagyna had noticeable percentage of phenolic compounds, tannen and rutin flavonoid. The results manifested that evaluation of phytochemical compounds could be a suitable method in identification of species having medical priority in this species.