دراسة تصنيفية مقارنة بين النوعين Azadirachta indica A. و Melia azedarach L. من العائلة الازردختية (Meliaceae) وتقييم كفاءتهما في تثبيط بعض الفطريات الممرضة

A comparative taxonomic study between the two types Azadirachta indica A. and Melia azedarach L. of the family (Meliaceae) and evaluate their efficiency in inhibiting some pathogenic fungi

Summary
The current research dealt with a taxonomic study of the species Azadirachta indica A. and Melia azedarach L. from family Meliaceae .The study included the vegetative and reproductive parts from several aspects, such as Morphological, Anatomical, Indumentum, Scanning Electron Microscope to micromorphology character , chemical characteristics and antifungal activity. The study was carried out in the laboratories of the College of education for Pure Science,Karbala University, in cooperation with the laboratories of the Ministry of Science and Technology for the period from November 2021 – June 2022.
The Morphological study included a study of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of each of the leaf, flower and fruit, and it yielded a number of interesting characteristics that distinguish the two species . As well as the rest of including the shape of leaflets and shape of blade base ,colour of petals , shape of sepals , stigma and fruit , the diameter of floral parts as petals , sepals , stamens and pistil ,which was bigger in Melia azedarach . so a micromorphologic study by SEM to Indumentum of the stems , leaves and floral parts which was denes in Melia azedarach on lower epidermis of leaves , sepals , petals and stem epidermis while in Azadirachta indica L was less or no Indumentum on the same parts . For the abundance and diversity of the indumentum, it was described for each of the vegetative, flowering and reproductive parts, as it was characterized by the presence of glandular unicellular and multicellular (capitate with stalk ,capitate without stalk and semicapitate) and branched hairs in addition to non-glandular hairs and papillae, as for the leaves ,stem, the petals, the calyx, the stamen , and the gynoecium parts .which wes the important diagnostic characteristics and was developed as a key to the diagnosis of the two species
As for the anatomical aspect, the characteristics of the upper and lower epidermis of the leaf, the floral parts and the epidermis of the stem were measured and described, as well as the transverse sections of the stem, It was found that many of these traits are important in diagnosing the two species, as it was distinguished by having actinocytic stomata type in lower epidermis in Azadirachta indica while it was anisocytic type in Melia azedarach , so the indumentum denes in Melia azedarach and presence of eight type of indumentum but in Azadirachta indica there was just three to four type of indumentum .the stem transvers section was studied the characters of secondary xylem arranged or vessels arranged, the ring porous wood was found in Melia azedarach but the diffuse porous wood in Azadirachta indica, they are important in diagnosing the two species and it showed by SEM.

The study also dealt with the chemical content of the ethanolic extract of the leaf and fruit of two studied species, where the compounds were diagnosed using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), It was found that there are twenty five chemical compounds resulting from secondary metabolism in Azadirachta indica , twenty in Melia azedarach leaves , twenty in Azadirachta indica fruits and nineteenth in Melia azedarach .which have an effective role in medical treatments and as a defense mechanism for plants, it include important of which is ,Alkaloid ,terpenes ,steroids , asters ,unsaturated glycerol and essential oil .in Melia azedarach fruits a highest percentage of the Alkaloid, in Azadirachta indica fruits a highest percentage of unsaturated glycerol , in Azadirachta indica leaves a highest percentage of unsaturated glycerol and terpenes and in Melia azedarach a highest percentage of esters , they are important in diagnosing the two species .that compounds were very important as anti fungal activity so the activity was tasted against some fungal pathogene (A. alternate and N. dimidiatum , S. fimicola) the results found that Melia azedarach L. extracts much activity(20,30,40)mg\ml from Azadirachta indica A. extracts and that give important evidence in diagnosing the two species The study concluded to confirm the current taxonomic position of species Azadirachta indica A. and Melia azedarach L.from family Meliaceae.