Linum usitatissimum (seed)

Nomenclature

Linum usitatissimum L.   Linaceae  
Standardized common name (English): flax  
Ayurvedic name(s): atasi  
Pinyin name(s): ya ma; ya ma zi (seed)

Botanical Voucher Specimen

Source: MOBOT, Tropicos.org	Source: MOBOT, Tropicos.org	Source: MOBOT, Tropicos.org

Source: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.	Source: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Organoleptic Characteristics

[Linum usitatissimum (seed)] odor slight; taste mucilaginous and oily. Source: United States Dispensatory (1918)

Macroscopic Characteristics

Common flax is an annual plant, with an erect, slender, round stem, about two feet in height, branching at top, and, like all other parts of the plant, entirely smooth. The leaves are small, lanceolate, acute, entire, of a pale-green color, sessile, and scattered alternately over the stem and branches. The flowers are terminal, and of a delicate-blue color. The calyx is persistent, and composed of five ovate, sharp-pointed, three-nerved leaflets, which are membranous on their border. The petals are five, obovate, striated, minutely scalloped at their extremities, and spread into funnel-shaped blossoms. The filaments are also five, united at the base, and the germ, which is ovate, supports five slender styles, terminating in obtuse stigmas. The fruit is a globular capsule, about the size of a small pea, having the persistent calyx at the base, crowned with a sharp spine, and containing ten seeds in distinct cells. [Seeds are] ovate or oblong-lanceolate, flattened, obliquely pointed at one end, from 3 to 5 mm. in length; externally chestnut-brown, very smooth and shiny, the raphe extending as a distinct, light-yellow ridge along one edge; easily cut with the finger-nail; internally olive-green; oily ... Seeds small, brown, glossy, nearly flat; from about four to six millimetres long; ovate, somewhat obliquely pointed; surface glabrous and minutely pitted. Internally yellowish-white, with a narrow oily endosperm and two large oily cotyledons. Epidermal cells filled with mucilage which swells and dissolves in water. Source: United States Dispensatory (1918) Source: PlantaPhile Source: PlantaPhile

Microscopic Characteristics

Under the microscope, transverse sections of Linseed when mounted in hydrated chloral T.S. show an epidermis with a mucilaginous layer from 0.01 to 0.03 mm. in thickness, covered by a very thin layer of cutin which is often more or less broken; two layers of parenchyma which overlie a continuous ring of stone cells having yellowish, porous walls and rather large lumina; a pigment layer, the cells having a reddish-brown content; an endosperm consisting of from 6 to 10 rows of cells surrounding the two large plano-convex cotyledons; the cells of both the endosperm and the cotyledons contain a fixed oil and aleurone grains, the latter being from 0.003 to 0.02 mm. in diameter. Source: United States Dispensatory (1918) Single layer of longitudinally elongated sclereids observed at 400x with Acidified Chloral Hydrate Glycerol Solution. Source: Elan M. Sudberg, Alkemist Laboratories Large oil droplets observed at 400x with Acidified Chloral Hydrate Glycerol Solution. Source: Elan M. Sudberg, Alkemist Laboratories