الفهرس 
Literature ReviewOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Moraceae Link (the mulberry family) is one of the most important angiospermic plant families as it includes a lot of nutritive plant species, especially Morus genus due to its economical value in silkworm rearing for silk production around the world in addition to the medicinal and nutritional value as it contains many active compounds which are effective against many diseases and health problems. As a result of the recorded conflictions regarding the number of Morus species and the difficult identification, the current study was done on seven taxa of Morus which were collected from Egyptian botanical gardens (Mazhar Botanical Garden and Orman Botanical Garden, Giza) and identified by the aid of specific references in order to investigate the morphological and anatomical criteria by using LM and SEM for delimitation among the studied taxa.
Phytochemical studies were performed to evaluate the chemical composition (phenols and flavonoids) quantitatively and qualitatively using UV spectrophotometer and HPLC analysis. Biological activities of M. alba were also studied to assess its effectiveness against inflammation, oxidation and cytotoxicity.
Cumulative tables, colored plates and artificial keys were designed to illustrate the similarities and distinctions among the studied taxa to provide full identification of them. The most important diagnostic features were summarized as follow:
Macromorphological characters
• Life spam: perennial in all studied taxa. Branching: drooping in M. alba pendula and M. nigra pendula or upright in the remaining taxa. Bark texture: rough with lenticels in three taxa and differes between longitudinally furrowed with scally surface, fissured with cracked surface, wrinkled and longitudinally furrowed in the other four taxa.
• Leaf shape: broadly ovate, oblong ovate, cordate or orbiculate. Leaves arrangement alternate. Simple leaves recorded in M. macroura and M. nigra cv. Al-taify while the remaining taxa recorded palmately lobed. Leaf apex: acute or acuminate. Leaf margin: dentate, crenate or serrate. Leaf class: microphyll, macrophyll or mesophyll.
• Significant variation in flower and sexuality: monoecious as in M. alba or dioecious in the remaining taxa. Catkin inflorescences were recorded in all taxa.
• Fruit color: reddish with dark dots as in M. celtidifolia, white as in M. alba and M. alba pendula or dark purple in the rest of taxa. Fruit length: very long (12 cm) in M. macroura, long (4 cm) in M. nigra cv. Al-taify or short (1.5 - 2.5 cm) in the rest of the studied taxa.
• Venation: basal and suprabasal actinodromous primary veins, brochidodromous and festooned brochidodromous secondaries and mixed opposite/ alternate tertiaries. No. of basal veins: three to six. FEUV: branched.
Micromorphological characteristics
• The leaves are hypostomatic with anomocytic stomata recorded in all studied taxa. Adaxial cell shape: polygonal in all studied taxa. Abaxial cell shape: irregular in M. alba or polygonal in the remaining taxa. Abaxial anticlinal wall: straight or undulate. Adaxial anticlinal wall: depressed and striated or smooth.
• The ad/ abaxial sculpture: rugose or ruminate. Ad/ abaxial periclinal wall: raised & striated or smooth. Stomata: elliptic or lens-shaped, elevated, sunken or leveled. Phytoliths: differed in shapes and sizes (rounded with small projection (203.1 to 243.8 µm) as in M. alba, rounded, wrinkled, with no projection (34.37 to 70.3 µm) as in M. alba pendula, rounded with irregular margin & small projection (39.1 to 54.7 µm) as in M. celtidifolia, rounded, rosette-shaped, with no projection (53.1 to 65.6 µm) as in M. macroura, ovoid with small projection (46.9 to 50 µm) as in M. nigra or rounded to ovoid, rosette-shaped with small projection as in M. nigra pendula (45.5 to 68.2 µm) and M. nigra cv. Al-taify (62.5 to 112.5 µm).
• Flattened adaxially and rounded abaxially lamina outline recorded in all studied taxa. Trichomes: eglandular (unbranched, unicellular, uniseriate) in all the studied taxa and glandular (with short unicellular, uniseriate stalk and multiseriate head) in all taxa except M. nigra cv. Al-taify. Mesophyll type: isobilateral in three taxa or dorsiventral in the rest of taxa.
• Three types of crystals (druses, prisms and cystoliths) detected in lamina of M. alba, M. alba pendula and M. nigra cv. Al-taify or two types (druses and cystoliths) in the rest of the investigated taxa.
• Lamina vascular system: represented by arc or horse-shoe continuous siphonostele one or few small adaxial bundles.
• Petiole anatomomical characteristics: Outline: more or less terete in M. macroura, slightly concave adaxially in M. nigra, channeled adaxially and rounded abaxially with furrows & ridges abaxially in M. celtidifolia or channeled adaxially in the rest of the studied taxa. Trichomes: eglandular (unbranched, unicellular, uniseriate) in all the studied taxa, glandular (with short uniseriate stalk and multiseriate head) in M. alba, M. alba pendula, M. macroura and M. nigra.
• Petiole vascular system: continuous siphonostele as in M. macroura or dissected siphonostele in the rest of investigated taxa.
• Crystals: undetected in petiole of M. macroura, one type (druses) as in M. celtidifolia and M. nigra or two types (druses and prismatic crystals) in the rest of studied taxa.
Phytochemical studies
• Phytochemical screening of aq. MeOH extract of aerial parts with fruits of the investigated taxa revealed the presence of flavonoids, carbohydrates, terpenoids and steroids in all studied taxa, whereas tanins and coumarins detected in trace amount.
• UV Spectrophotometric analysis for flavonoid and polyphenol contents: revealed that M. nigra cv. Al-taify recorded the highest flavonoid and polyphenol contents while M. macroura was the lowest.
• Qualitative and quantitative estimation of flavonoid and phenolic compounds by HPLC analysis: performed on the most common Morus species of the studied taxa viz. M. alba, M. macroura and M. nigra, as the major compounds were kaemp. 3 (2-p-comaroyl) glucose and rutin. M. nigra recorded the highest amount of rutin (2324.25 ppm), while M. alba was the lowest (34.4 ppm). M. macroura recorded the highest amount of kaemp. 3 (2-p-comaroyl) glucose (1977.87 ppm) while M. alba was also the lowest (193.1 ppm). The major phenolic compound recorded in the three species was pyrogallol as M. nigra recorded the highest amount (3889.2 ppm) followed by M. macroura (3798 ppm) and M. alba was the lowest (1345 ppm).
Biological studies of M. alba
I. Anti-inflammatory activity using carrageenan-induced rat paw oedema: the polar extract recorded higher inhibition percentage (55%) after 3 hrs., whereas the non-polar extract recorded slight inhibition (14%) after 4 hrs.
II. Antioxidant activity: indicated that the 50% aq. methanol extract of M. alba had considerable effect on scavenging of free radicals at concentration of 100 µg/ ml.
III. Cytotoxic activity of aq. MeOH extract of M. alba: showed significant inhibition effect on the growth and proliferation of HepG2 cells by the value of 35% at 100 µg/ml.
from the foregoing data of macro & micromorphological as well as phytochemical studies of the studied Morus taxa, the present study reinforced the discrimination among the taxa under investigation beside to the constructed artificial keys and charts that outlined the phytochemical profile of Morus L. as well as evaluation of the biological activities of this genus.