Population Status and Floral Biology of Trichopus Zeylanicus Ssp
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PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online OPEN ACCESS every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Short Communication Population status and floral biology of Trichopus zeylanicus ssp. travancoricus Burkill ex K. Narayanan (Dioscoreaceae), an important ethnomedicinal plant of the southern Western Ghats, India Nambi Sasikala & Raju Ramasubbu 26 January 2019 | Vol. 11 | No. 1 | Pages: 13156–13161 DOI: 10.11609/jot.3502.11.1.13156-13161 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Partner Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 January 2019 | 11(1): 13156–13161 Population status and floral biology of Trichopus zeylanicus ssp. travancoricus Burkill ex ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) K. Narayanan (Dioscoreaceae), an important ethnomedicinal Short Communication Short ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) plant of the southern Western Ghats, India PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS Nambi Sasikala 1 & Raju Ramasubbu 2 1,2 Department of Biology, The Gandhigram Rural Insttute - Deemed University, Gandhigram, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu 624302, India. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected] (corresponding author) Abstract: Trichopus zeylanicus ssp. travancoricus is locally known in A number of scientsts worked on the genus Tamil Nadu as Arogyapachai, meaning a plant that provides good health Trichopus Gaertn. and transferred its positon from and vitality. The unripe fruits of the plant are highly rejuvenatng and are used by the Kani Tribe to ameliorate fatgue. This subspecies is one family to another. The genus was treated under also known for its pharmacological and medicinal utlity and possesses Aristolochiaceae by Lindley (1832) and Thwaites (1861), choleretc, aphrodisiac, hepatoprotectve, mast cell stabilizing, adaptogenic, and cardioprotectve propertes. A study was atempted under Dioscoreales by Bentham & Hooker (1883), and to understand the populaton status and foral biology of T. zeylanicus under the monogeneric Trichopodaceae by Hutchinson ssp. travancoricus in its natural habitat. The populaton of this herb (1934) and Dahlgren et al. (1985). Takhtajan (1980) was found to be severely fragmented and setled in shaded banks of streams and rivulets in Agasthyamalai Hills. Being a rhizomatous herb, conceded the status of a subfamily to Trichopodaceae its fowers are concealed by its broad leaves, thus preventng exposure under Dioscoreaceae but later accepted the view of to pollinators. The number of pollinatng agents in the fowers was Hutchinson (1934). In the recent past, Rao (1955), reported as meager. The fruits are capsules with two to six seeds, each having a hard seed coat with a projected endosperm. Therefore, the Ayensu (1966), Ramachandran (1968), and Kale & conventonal propagaton of the subspecies is not so successful due Pai (1979) studied the diferent botanical aspects of to its poor seed set and prolonged maturaton tme. In additon, the Trichopus with respect to its systematc positon and fruits are damaged by rodents, livestock, and collecton for medicinal usage, which severely afect the populaton status of the plant. supported its separaton from Dioscoreaceae. The Sustainable use of this wonder herb is important for its conservaton genus, however, is believed to be a connectng link in its natural habitat. between Dioscoreaceae and Taccaceae, combining the Keywords: Kani Tribe, Trichopus sempervirens, Indian Ginseng, characters of both as well as those of Stemonaceae Agasthyamalai Hills, pollinaton, conservaton. and Trilliaceae of the order Dioscoreales (Dahlgren DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3502.11.1.13156-13161 Editor: K. Ravikumar, I-AIM (FRLHT), Bengaluru, India. Date of publicaton: 26 January 2019 (online & print) Manuscript details: #3502 | Received 21 May 2017 | Final received 01 May 2018 | Finally accepted 25 December 2018 Citaton: Sasikala, N. & R. Ramasubbu (2019). Populaton status and foral biology of Trichopus zeylanicus ssp. travancoricus Burkill ex K. Narayanan (Diosco- reaceae), an important ethnomedicinal plant of the southern Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(1): 13156–13161; htps://doi.org/10.11609/ jot.3502.11.1.13156-13161 Copyright: Sasikala & Ramasubbu 2019. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: DST, New Delhi. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: We thank the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi, for providing a fund under INSPIRE Fellowship Programme (IF140173). We also thank the Field Director, KMTR, Tamil Nadu (C.No.6201/2013/in) and PCCF, Kerala Forest Department (WL10-61755/2015), for the permission to carry out the research. 13156 Populaton status and foral biology of Trichopus zeylanicus ssp. travancoricus Sasikala & Ramasubbu et al. 1985). The members of Dioscoreaceae are Indo-Malaysian subspecies. usually rhizomatous climbing lianas or vines with small Trichopus zeylanicus Gaertn ssp. travancoricus vascular bundles arranged in two circles with larger Burkill ex K. Narayanan is locally known in Tamil Nadu cauline bundles alternatng with seeds. Trichopus are and Kerala as Arogyapacha or Arogyapachai, meaning climbing or prostrate herbs with the vascular bundles leaves that give health and vitality. It is reported arranged in an arc. The detailed systematc account as one of the important ethnomedicinal plants that provided by Caddick et al. (2002) on the relatonship grows near wet banks of streams and rivulets in between Stenomeris and Trichopus remained unclear. dense forests. The Kani Tribe contributed in bringing Afer several confrmatve studies conducted by the the multfarious uses of this wild plant to today’s Angiosperm Phylogenetc Group (APG), Trichopus was medicinal world. The tribe also claims that to remain placed under the individual family Trichopodaceae healthy, agile, young, and resistant to various infectous under the order Dioscoreals (Angiosperm Phylogeny diseases, one should consume the fresh fruits of the Group 1998). In APG II, however, Trichopodaceae was plant regularly (Pushpangandan et al. 1988). Its seeds merged with Dioscoreaceae (Angiosperm Phylogeny are reported to be rich in saponins and a preparaton Group 2003), which was followed in APG III (Angiosperm from its leaves, stems, and seeds is used as health Phylogeny Group 2009) and APG IV (Angiosperm tonic (Sharma et al. 1989). The plant is treated as Phylogeny Group 2016). Indian Ginseng because of its similarity to Panax The genus Trichopus was reported with two ginseng in pharmacological propertes (Anilkumar et al. herbaceous species, namely T. sempervirens (H.Perrier) 2002). Trichopus zeylanicus also possesses choleretc, Caddick & Wilkin and T. zeylanicus Gaertn. Both the aphrodisiac, hepatoprotectve, mast cell stabilizing species show restricted distributon — T. sempervirens (Subramoniam et al. 1997, 1998, 1999), adaptogenic is reported as endemic to Madagascar whereas T. (Singh et al. 2005), and cardioprotectve (Velavan et zeylanicus is distributed in peninsular India, Sri Lanka, al. 2009) propertes. The whole plant has the potental the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, and Thailand. Trichopus for anxiolytc and antdepressant, hepatoprotectve, zeylanicus usually grows in lowland sandy areas of immunomodulatory, and ant-ulcer actvites (; Rishikesh streams but in low-lying forests in the Malay Peninsula. & Sambathkumar 2016). In these habitats, it is vulnerable to fooding but similar In India, this subspecies was reported as endemic conditons (sandy areas of streams) rule where it to the southern Western Ghats with a restricted grows in the higher alttudes of the southern Western distributon in Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve, one Ghats. Trichopus zeylanicus was reported with three of the fve important centres of plant diversity in India. subspecies, namely T. zeylanicus ssp. angustfolius, T. The area is also one of the 24 microcenters of endemism zeylanicus ssp. Travancoricus, and T. ssp. zeylanicus. and a super hotspot of biodiversity (Ramasubbu et al. Afer several periodical feld visits conducted in 2016). Eleven forest types were recognized from this diferent forest areas