author(s) : Husseiny A. H. Elgendy, Ibrahim A. El Garf, Fahem A. Ahmed
and Abdel-Fattah M. Rizk

The Leguminosae is the third largest family of flowering plants and one of the most important economically. There are approximately 19,325 species in 727 genera (Veitch, 2010). The prevalent and largest genera are Astragalus that is over 2,400 species, Acacia that is over 950 species, and Indigofera which are about 700 species, Crotalaria is about 700 species, and Mimosa is around 500 species, which comprises about 9.4% of all flowering plant species. The family Leguminosae has extremely diverse characteristics which includes one of the most important group of plants, because these are used by humans such as legumes are used as crops, green manures and forages.
These plants synthesize a large range of natural products including flavors, poisons, dyes, and also has a great importance in medicinal purpose.
The family leguminosae is also divided into 3 subfamilies papilionodae, caesalpinioideae and mimosoideae.
These plants had a number of pharmacological actions including analgesic activity, anti- inflammatory, antiulcer, anticancer, antidiabetic, antirheumatic, antimicrobial, antibacterial, and cytotoxic activities (Ahmad et al., 2016).