Mirisni grašak

Sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) is an annual climbing plant native to Sicily, southern Italy and the Aegean Islands. It grows to a height of 1-2 metres when suitable support is available. The leaves are pinnate with two leaflets and a terminal tendril that twines around supporting structures and helps the plant to climb. In the wild plant the flowers are purple and 2-3.5 cm broad; in cultivars they are larger and highly variable in colour. Sweet peas are grown for their flower colour, usually in pastel shades of blue, pink, purple and white, including bi-colours.

In one analysis of fresh flowers, 71 compounds were isolated. The main volatile compounds in quantifiable amounts (>2%) were α-trans-bergamotene, (E)-β-ocimene, linalool, (E,E)-α-farnesene, 7-epi-sesquithujene and β-sesquiphellandrene. Phenyl ethyl alcohol was a major constituent of the flowers, with values of 24.67%, 7.58% and 7.16%. In an earlier study of the floral volatiles, the major components were (E)-β-ocimene (22.9-46.5%), linalool (16.6-26.2%), geraniol (4.5-6.5%) and nerol (3.3-10.1%). In the enantioselective analysis of the flowers, linalool was found to be a racemic mixture. Linalool is a naturally occurring terpene alcohol and, together with geraniol, nerol and citronellol, one of the rose alcohols.

Francesco Cupani, an Italian Franciscan friar, is credited with discovering and first cultivating the wild sweet pea. Sweet peas have been cultivated since the 17th century. The Scottish nurseryman Henry Eckford cross-bred and developed the sweet pea, turning it from a rather insignificant if sweetly scented flower into a floral sensation of the 19th century. By 1901, Eckford had introduced a total of 115 of the 264 cultivars grown at the time. The first of the tall, large-flowered, frilly sweet peas, named 'Countess Spencer', was introduced in 1901, and all later varieties of this form are known as Spencers.

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