An official website of the United States government.

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

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
Download these results as:
CSV
EXCEL
PDF
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
BETA-AMYRIN 9 Seed Essent. Oil *
BETA-CAROTENE 53 Flower *
BETA-CAROTENE 53 Leaf 0.1 394.0 0.58 *
BETA-CAROTENE 53 Plant 28.0 149.0 0.08 *
BETA-CAROTENE-5,6-EPOXIDE 0 Leaf *
BETA-CRYPTOXANTHIN 2 Leaf *
BETA-IONONE 13 Leaf *
BETA-MANNANASE 0 Seed *
BETA-SITOSTEROL 47 Fruit 5.0 -0.79 *
BETA-SITOSTEROL 47 Plant *
BETA-SITOSTEROL 47 Seed *
BETA-SITOSTEROL 47 Seed Oil *
BETA-SPINASTEROL 0 Fruit 19.0 *
BETA-SPINASTEROL 0 Plant *
BETAINE 14 Plant *
BIOCHANIN-A 32 Leaf *
BIOCHANIN-A 32 Plant *
BIOCHANIN-A 32 Shoot *
BIOTIN 4 Plant 0.2 -1.00 ANON. 1948-1976. The Wealth of India raw materials. Publications and Information Directorate, CSIR, New Delhi. 11 volumes.
BORON 4 Leaf 25.0 -0.99 *
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
Download these results as:
CSV
EXCEL
PDF
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
Iodothyronine-Deiodinase-Inhibitor 1 Jeffery B. Harborne and H. Baxter, eds. 1983. Phytochemical Dictionary. A Handbook of Bioactive Compounds from Plants. Taylor & Frost, London. 791 pp.
Irritant 7 *
JNK-Inhibitor 1 *
Juvabional 2 Jacobson, M., Glossary of Plant-Derived Insect Deterrents, CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, FL, 213 p, 1990.
Keratolytic 1 Jeffery B. Harborne and H. Baxter, eds. 1983. Phytochemical Dictionary. A Handbook of Bioactive Compounds from Plants. Taylor & Frost, London. 791 pp.
Lactagogue 1 Lawrence Review of Natural Products, Mar-91.
Larvicide 1 *
Larvistat 2 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.
Laxative 6 *
Laxative? 2 Lawrence Review of Natural Products, Sep-91.
Leptingenic 1 Challem, J., Berkson, Burt, and Smith, Melissa Dianne. 2000.
Syndrome X - The complete nutritional program to prevent and reservse insulin resistance. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 272 pp. $24.95
Leukotriene-Inhibitor 1 *
Lipase-Inhibitor 2 *
Lipolytic 2 LAWSON in Koch, H. P. and Lawson, L. D., eds. 1996. Garlic- The
Science and therapeutic application of Allium sativum L. and related species. Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore. 329 pp.
Lipotropic 4 Jeffery B. Harborne and H. Baxter, eds. 1983. Phytochemical Dictionary. A Handbook of Bioactive Compounds from Plants. Taylor & Frost, London. 791 pp.
Lipoxygenase-Inhibitor 10 Oszmianski, J. and Lee, C.Y. 1990. Inhibitory Effect of Phenolics on Carotene Bleaching in Vegetables. J. Agric. Food Chem. 38: 688-690.
Lithogenic 2 *
Litholytic 2 Martindale's 29th
Lubricant 3 Jeffery B. Harborne and H. Baxter, eds. 1983. Phytochemical Dictionary. A Handbook of Bioactive Compounds from Plants. Taylor & Frost, London. 791 pp.
Lupus-Generating 1 Merck 11th Edition