Аннотация
Abstract Background Hedysarum L. is one of the large families of the Fabaceae, consisting of 200 species. Species in the genus Hedysarum are valuable forage and medicinal resources. In this paper we studied Hedysarum theinum Krasnob. and Hedysarum neglectum Ledeb. growing in the Western Altai of Eastern Kazakhstan. H.theinum is a perennial, herbaceous, valuable medicinal plant, a rare high-altitude species, an Altai-Dzungarian endemic and globally endangered species. H. neglectum is a perennial plant of high medicinal and fodder value, growing mainly in the sub-alpine zone. A complex phytochemical study of Hedysarum using modern methods, expanding the data on herbal medicines is actual. At the current time, taxonomic and phylogenetic questions of the genus Hedysarum are the subject of close attention, as the systematic knowledge of the genus Hedysarum L. Fabaceae: Hedysareae is still incomplete. Therefore, questions are being actively addressed by correlating data obtained by molecular genetic analyses. In the study, route-recognition methods were used in a field search of two species of Hedysarum for comparative morphological study in 2020–2021. Results The morphological measurements showed a difference in the external structure of the two species. Structural changes in the anatomical structure of the leaf, stem and root were analyzed as the plants adapted to different conditions in the Western Altai. The changes were expressed in the transition from the typical dorsiventral leaf structure of H.theinum to the isolateral-palisade structure of the mesophyll of H.neglectum. The phytochemical analysis revealed the highest amount of ethyl α-d glucopyranoside at 45.23% in the subterranean part of H. theinum, which was only 0.8% in H. neglectum. The root part of H. theinum contained the highest vitamin E content of 11.36%, while the above-ground part of H. neglectum showed an insignificant amount of tocopherol at 0.37%. Also the above-ground and underground parts of the two species contain squalene, which has an antioxidant effect and strengthens the immune system. Nowadays, an urgent task in pharmacognosy is the use of all kinds of DNA analysis methods for the identification of plant raw materials. In this regard, the possibility of using molecular genetic methods of research in the analysis of representatives of the genus Hedysarum L., for the identification of medicinal plant raw materials was studied. Conclusion Phylogenetic analysis using molecular genetic markers revealed that H. neglectum and H. theinum belong to the Hedysarum section. The data obtained can be used for the species identification of H.theinum and H.neglectum, which has so far been difficult due to the lack of some systematic morphological characters. The results obtained may be useful for the taxonomic studies of this section.