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Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
U.S. Department of Agriculture
  1. Home
  2. Medicago sativa

Medicago sativa (Fabaceae)

Common Names
Alfalfa; Lucerne
How this plant is used
Generally Recognized as Safe
Subspecies
sativa
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
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List of plant chemicals.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Chemical Name Activity Count Plant Part Low Parts Per Million High Parts Per Million Standard Deviation Reference
DAIDZEIN 32 Plant *
DAIDZEIN 32 Shoot *
DAIDZEN 4 Plant Pedersen, M. 1987. Nutritional Herbology. Pederson Publishing. Bountiful, Utah. 377 pp.
DAPHNORETIN 2 Plant *
DEHYDRO-SOYASAPONIN-I 0 Shoot 20.0 *
DIOSGENIN 7 Seed 1000.0 -0.71 *
EREPSIN 0 Plant ANON. 1948-1976. The Wealth of India raw materials. Publications and Information Directorate, CSIR, New Delhi. 11 volumes.
ESCULETIN 30 Fruit 140.0 *
ESCULETIN 30 Plant Jim Duke's personal files.
FAT 0 Plant 8084.0 43000.0 -0.13 *
FAT 0 Seed 101000.0 123000.0 -0.75 CRC Handbook of Medicinal Herbs and/or CRC Handbook of Proximate Analyses
FERREDOXINS 0 Plant Leung, A. Y. and Foster, S. 1995. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 649 pp.
FERULIC-ACID 61 Leaf *
FERULIC-ACID 61 Tissue Culture *
FIBER 15 Plant 31000.0 423000.0 1.48 *
FIBER 15 Seed 81000.0 91732.0 -0.34 ANON. 1948-1976. The Wealth of India raw materials. Publications and Information Directorate, CSIR, New Delhi. 11 volumes.
FIBER(CRUDE) 0 Plant 210000.0 1.96 *
FIBER(DIETARY) 0 Plant 423000.0 0.64 *
FLAVOXANTHIN 0 Leaf *
FOLACIN 15 Plant *
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
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List of plant activities.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Activity Chemical Count Reference
11B-HSD-Inhibitor 3 *
17-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-Inhibitor 1 *
5-Alpha-Reductase-Inhibitor 5 *
5-HETE-Inhibitor 1 *
5-Lipoxygenase-Inhibitor 4 *
Abortifacient 3 *
Absorbent 1 Martindale's 29th
Acaricide 2 *
ACE-Inhibitor 3 *
Acetylcholinergic 1 *
AChE-Inhibitor 1 Grundy, D. L. and Still, C. C., Inhibition of acetylcholinesterases by pulegone-1,2-epoxide, Oest. Biochem. & Physiol., 23, 1985, 383-8.
Acidulant 2 Aloe Research Council - Duke writeup of non-peer reviewd book by Coats and draft by Henry
Additive 1 Aloe Research Council - Duke writeup of non-peer reviewd book by Coats and draft by Henry
Adjuvant 1 Merck 11th Edition
Aggregant 1 Pizzorno, J.E. and Murray, M.T. 1985. A Textbook of Natural Medicine. John Bastyr College Publications, Seattle, Washington (Looseleaf).
Aldehyde-Oxidase-Inhibitor 1 *
Aldose-Reductase-Inhibitor 12 Shimizu, M., Ito, T., Terashima, S., Hayashi, T., Arisawa, M., Morita, N., Kurokawa, S., Ito, K., and Hashimoto, Y. 1984. Inhibition of Lens Aldose Reductase by Flavonoids. Phytochemistry, 23: 1885-1888.
Allelochemic 6 Lydon, J. & Duke, S., The potential of pesticides from plants, pp. 1-41 in Craker, L. & Simon, J., eds, Herbs, Spices & Medicinal Plants: Recent Advances in Botany, Horticulture, & Pharmacology, v. 4, Oryx Press, Phoenix, 1989, 267pp.
Allelopathic 3 Holappa, L.D., and Blum*, U. 1991. Effects of Exogenously Applied Ferulic Acid, a Potential Allelopathic Compound, on Leaf Growth, Water Utilization, and Endogenous Abscisic Acid Levels of Tomato, Cucumber, and Bean. J. of Chemical Ecology, 17(5): 865.
Allergenic 13 *