Journal of Agricultural Faculty of Uludag University, 2016, Volume: 30, Number: Special Issue, 392-394 392 A New Alternative Species as a Medicinal, Aromatic and Forage Crop: Blue Melilot (Melilotus caeruleus (L.) Desr.) Burhan ARSLAN 1 , Emrullah CULPAN 1* and Ertan ATEŞ 1 1 Namık Kemal University, Faculty of Agriculture, Field Crops Department, Tekirdag, TURKEY * Corresponding author: eculpan@nku.edu.tr ABSTRACT Melilots (Melilotus L.) are classified in the tribe Trifolieae of the family Fabaceae. Melilotus L. contains almost 20 species and about 2/3 of the melilot species are biennial, the remainders are annuals. It is genus in forage legumes shows significant variations in botanical and agricultural characters. Blue melilot (Melilotus caeruleus (L.) Desr.) is one of the considerable Melilotus species. The primary center of origin of blue melilot is the Thrace region in Turkey, Balkan countries, near east and the central Mediterranean region, also Caucasus on the border between Asia and Europe, the mountains of central, eastern and south eastern Europe. It is an annual, winter or spring annual legume normally growing 20 to 100 cm tall and can survive at -8 o C. Blue melilot is adapted to a wide range of soil types and it has been successfully grown in areas that receive 450 to 1200 mm annual rainfall. Besides, blue melilot is known as the Blue fenugreek, but it is genetically and morphologically different from Trigonella species. Blue melilot is used as aromatic and medicinal plants, culinary, nectar source for bees, forage, silage and soil improvement. Keywords: Blue melilot, New species, Aromatic plant, Forage crop INTRODUCTION Melilots (Melilotus L.) are clasified in the tribe Trifolieae of the family Fabaceae. Melilotus L. contains almost 20 species and about 2/3 of the melilot species are biennial, the remainders are annuals. It is genus in forage legumes shows significant variations in botanical and agricultural characters. Blue melilot (Melilotus caeruleus (L.) Desr.) is one of the considerable Melilotus species. The primary center of origin of blue melilot is the Thrace region in Turkey, Balkan countries (Ates, 2015), near east and the central Mediterranean region (Dangi et al. 2004), also Caucasus on the border between Asia and Europe, the mountains of central, eastern and south eastern Europe (Katzer, 2016). It is an annual, winter or spring annual legume normally growing 20 to 100 cm tall and can survive at -8 o C. Blue melilot is adapted to a wide range of soil types, but it is best best suited in low lying areas, with well drained, chernozem soils of pH 6 to 8. It has been successfully grown in areas that receive 450 to 1200 mm annual rainfall (Ates, 2012). The leaves are trifoliate, alternate, with stipules adnate to the leaf-stalk, and heads or dense spikes of small blue, purple or white flowers; the small, one seeded roundish pods are enclosed in the calyx. The seeds of blue melilot are usually dark goldenrod and ochre in color. Besides, blue melilot is known as the Blue fenugreek, but it is genetically and morphologically different from Trigonella species. Based on genetic similarity indices, higher diversity is observed in the blue melilot as compared to fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graceum L.) (Dangi et al. 2004). The aim of this review is to explain utilization possibility of new species: blue melilot. UTILIZATION Blue melilot is used as aromatic (alpha keto acids) and medicinal plants [α-ketoisocaproic acid (C 6 H 10 O 3 ), pyruvic acid (C 3 H 4 O 3 ), α-ketoisovaleric acid (C 5 H 8 O 3 ) and α-ketoglutaric acid (C 5 H 6 O 5 )], spice, nectar source for bees, forage, silage and soil improvement (Ates, 2011). Blue melilot started to be used in recent years and its important role got high attention in natural supplemental industry today, generally, it shows good properties and characters of following field; antispasmodic and antibacterial. Also, this herb possesses mild tranquilizing properties and is prescribed for treating insomnia or sleeplessness, particularly among children, and anxiety (Shi et al., 2014). Especially, α-keto acids analogues of the naturally occurring amino acids are of major importance in intermediary metabolism. Thus, pyruvic acid is a metabolite in a number of enzyme catalyzed intracellular phenomena and oxaloacetic acid, α-ketoglutaric acid, and oxalosuccinic acid are intermediates in the