Melilotus alba

Melilotus alba

Melilotus albus, known as honey clover, white melilot (UK), Bokhara clover (Australia), white sweetclover (USA), and sweet clover, is a nitrogen-fixing legume in the family Fabaceae. Melilotus albus is considered a valuable honey plant and source of nectar and is often grown for forage. Its characteristic sweet odor, intensified by drying, is derived from coumarin.

Uses

Anticlotting agent for the blood, Ointments for external ulcers.

Parts Used

Leaves.

Chemical Composition

Objective To study the chemical constituents of Melilotus officinalis. Methods The compounds were isolated and purified by silica gel column chromatography, gel chromatography, and ODS column chromatography. Their structures were elucidated by chemical and spectral analyses. Results Twelve compounds were obtained from the 70% ethanol extract of M officinalis and their structures were identified as β-sitosterol (1), coumarin (2), methyl 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propionate (3), kaempferol-3-O-α-L-rhamnoside (4), rutin (5), apigenin-7-O-β-D-lutinoside (6), dibutyl phthalate (7), robinin (8) clovin (9), kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside (10), isoquerecitrin (11), and medicarpin 3-O-β-glucopyranoside (12).

Common names

Language	Common name
Kannada
Hindi
Malayalam
Tamil
Telugu
Marathi	NA
Gujarathi	NA
Punjabi	NA
Kashmiri	NA
Sanskrit
English	Honey clover, White melilot, Bokhara clover, White sweetclover

Properties

Reference: Dravya - Substance, Rasa - Taste, Guna - Qualities, Veerya - Potency, Vipaka - Post-digesion effect, Karma - Pharmacological activity, Prabhava - Therepeutics.

Habit

Herbs

Identification

Leaf

Kind	Shape	Feature
Simple	Alternate	The leaves are compound (made up of two or more discrete leaflets

Flower

Type	Size	Color and composition	Stamen	More information
Unisexual	Small	white	5	There is only one way to evenly divide the flower (the flower is bilaterally symmetrical).

Fruit

Type	Size	Mass	Appearance	Seeds	More information
Simple Fruit	3–5 mm	The fruit is dry but does not split open when ripe			{{{6}}}

Mode of Propagation

Seeds.

How to plant/cultivate

The plant is a good green manure crop[20, 87, 172]. It can be sown in the autumn and overwintered or sown from spring to mid summer. It can be cut several times for compost material before being finally incorporated into the soil[87]. Soil: L = light (sandy) M = medium H = heavy ... Moisture: D = dry M = Moist We = wet Wa = water. Growth: S = slow M = medium F = fast.

Commonly seen growing in areas

Meadows.

Photo Gallery

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External Links

• Manual treatment