Journal of Applied Research on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants最新文献

Giloy (Tinospora cordifolia Miers.) is a well-known herbal medicinal plant that is therapeutically rich in secondary metabolites but is bitter in taste, thereby limiting its potential to be used as a functional food. Hence, this study was aimed at reducing the bitterness of giloy juice through cold plasma (CP) (10–30 kV, 10–40 min, CCD with 5 center points) and microwave (MW) (100–180 W, 5–15 min) applications, making it available in a more palatable form, which is quite a noble approach unlike already existing debittering methods like ultrasound and β-cyclodextrin incorporation methods. Bicyclic diterpenoids are the principal bitterness-causing element in giloy; hence, total terpenoid content (TTC) was taken as the gauging factor to scale the bitterness while targeting higher concentrations of various bioactive compounds (BCs) through FRAP, TPC, TFC, and DPPH radical scavenging activity assays. RSM is used to address the change in BCs’ content with respect to the influencing factors. A decrease in TTC in giloy juice was observed by 73% after a CP treatment of 30 kV for 25 min and by 26.5% in a MW treatment of 100 W for 15, which the FTIR results also corroborate. The physical surface morphology of the sample was found to be affected by the CP and MW treatments, as evidenced by the SEM images, which aided in the evaporation and diffusion of BCs and further variations in their functionality owing to the operating conditions. CP though was effective in reducing the TTC but MW was good at extracting terpenoids along with other BCs.

Agastache is a genus of perennial herbaceous plants belonging to the mint family, Lamiaceae. Several Agastache species are commercially cultivated and used as medicinal, culinary, and ornamental plants. However, information on the genetic diversity and population structure of the species remains unclear. In the present study, genetic diversity within Agastache species was analyzed using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. In this study, 249,746 SSRs were identified in the A. rugosa genome and primer pairs were designed for 56,675 SSRs. The majority of SSR repeat types were dinucleotides (60.65%), followed by trinucleotides (12.38%), and pentanucleotides (12.10%). PCR conditions were established for 250 primer pairs, 111 of which were found to be polymorphic in A. rugosa germplasm. The number of alleles (N_A) ranged from 2 to 19, major allele frequency (M_AF) ranged from 0.11 to 0.95, observed heterozygosity (H_O) ranged from 0 to 0.89, and polymorphic information content (PIC) ranged from 0.09 to 0.92. Cross-species amplification of SSRs markers in other Agastache species showed amplification rates of 82.6% for A. foeniculum and 78.1% in A. urticifolia, with an average of 80.37%. Cluster analysis of the 19 A. rugosa accessions using SSRs markers revealed four major clusters, and population STRUCTURE analysis using 79 SSRs markers revealed three groups and three subgroups among the A. rugosa populations. The SSRs markers developed can contribute to applications such as varietal identification, genetic diversity analysis, and population structure analysis of A. rugosa germplasm.

Cassia fistula L. is a valuable medicinal plant utilized in many traditional medical systems, including Ayurveda and Oriental medicine system. Copamyntis obliquifasciella Hampson (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) is a polyphagous insect pest, however the available literature of this pest on C. fistula is limited or rather scarce in India as well as world. Considering the economic importance of this medicinal plant, documentation of insects pests along with the bio-ecology and natural enemy fauna is important for formulating the integrated pest management program. The present study describes the incidence, damage and life cycle of C. obliquifasciella on C. fistula in India. The identity of the pest was confirmed through the examination of morphological characteristics of male and female genitalia, further confirmed through molecular analysis (GenBank no. MK559413). The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the Indian population of C. obliquifasciella shared a close relationship with the populations from Pakistan and China. The initial instar larvae of C. obliquifasciella is feed by nibbling and scraping the chlorophyll content of the leaves, and later they stitch two or three leaves together and fed in between those stitched leaves. The percent pest incidence varied between 20 and 100, and the foliar damage of 5.5–71% was recorded. The total life cycle of C. obliquifasciella was completed in 31.20 ± 2.14 (male) and 34.25 ± 2.36 (female) days. Two hymenopteran parasitoids, such as Phanerotoma sp. (Braconidae: Cheloninae) and Apanteles taragamae Viereck (Braconidae: Microgastrinae) were associated with C. obliquifasciella. To best of our knowledge, this is the first description of C. obliquifasciella and their associated natural enemies from the Indian region.

Spice adulteration not only seriously interferes with their flavoring functions but also leads to life-threatening poisoning for consumers. To overcome the limitations of traditional methods in spice adulteration detection, a multiplex allele-specific PCR system was developed for molecular discrimination of four commonly used spices, Foeniculum vulgare Mill., Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim., Illicium verum Hook.f., and Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & L.M.Perry, from their corresponding adulterants based on chloroplast SNP markers. The developed assay, eliminating the obstacles of DNA sequencing and false negative results, can detect 0.1% of spice adulteration down to 0.01 ng level of genomic DNA with absolute allelic specificity and favorable efficiency. Based on the results, a standard operating procedure for using multiplex allele-specific PCR for spice adulteration detection was established. Therefore, the present study provided a simple, reliable, and sensitive molecular method for adulteration detection of spices.

Aromatic marigold (Tagetes minuta L.) is an essential oil-bearing plant of industrial value. The essential oil obtained from the plant has high demand in the flavor and perfume industry. The present study investigates the molecular diversity patterns using microsatellite markers in 126 breeding lines representing three groups (higher, intermediate, and lower biomass) based on phenotypic characterization. These lines are being maintained through repeated selfing. A total of 503 alleles with an average of 16.23 alleles per locus were detected at 31 SSR loci over all the genotypes. The average most common and rare alleles were 3.35 and 12.87, respectively, over all the studied loci. The high polymorphic information content (0.88) and genetic diversity (0.89) indicate high allelic diversity among the genotypes studied. Ten genotype-specific markers were identified. Significant molecular variances have been observed among the groups (3 %), among individuals (72 %), and within individuals (26 %). The unweighted neighbor-joining clustering based on a simple matching dissimilarity index grouped all 126 genotypes into five major clusters. The clustering pattern primarily follows the biomass-specific distribution of populations. The principle coordinate analysis depicts considerable variations and again confirms the biomass-specific grouping of genotypes. The highly significant positive association between genotypic and phenotypic distances indicates the importance of these marker loci for future marker-assisted selection and association mapping studies.

Medicinal plants produce secondary metabolites, which have pharmaceutical efficacy in diverse diseases. Plant-derived secondary metabolites are utilized in different industrial sectors including pharmaceuticals, food, cosmetics, and agrochemical. Reportedly, 80% of the global population rely on medicinal plants for primary health care. The increasing commercial demand of secondary metabolites in recent years has, thus, led to the adoption of different strategies to improve secondary metabolite production in plants. Optimization of biological resources to enhance the productivity of plants is an important way to create sustainable bioeconomy for the 21st century. With a score of studies reporting the positive impact of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on producing important secondary metabolites in medicinal plants, this article reviews the status quo of AMF-medicinal plant association. Furthermore, it critically discusses the influence of symbiotic association on plant primary metabolism, which ultimately regulates secondary metabolite production and accumulation. The review introduces the symbiotic association between AMF and medicinal plants, followed by a brief account of plant metabolites’ roles in establishing and maintaining the symbiosis. In continuation, the influence of AMF on different medicinally important secondary metabolites such as alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolics, and terpenoids are briefly discussed. Furthermore, the underlying mechanisms of AMF-mediated accumulation of secondary metabolites are discussed, including the plant’s response mechanism to AMF colonization encompassing the morphological, physiological, and molecular responses. In conclusion, the article emphasizes the prospects of mycorrhizal technology in sustainable cultivation practices of medicinal plants.

Origanum vulgare L. subsp. hirtum (commonly known as Greek oregano) is a perennial species of the Lamiaceae family that counts numerous applications in the food and pharmaceutical industry. The exploitation of Greek oregano germplasm lies in its unique diversity in secondary metabolites, which are accumulated in the aerial parts of the plant. For the industrial exploitation of this crop the starting germplasm is of high importance in terms of valorizing well characterized chemotypes with desired and stable agronomic and phytochemical traits. For this reason, a pre-breeding evaluation of twenty-one accessions collected and preserved under the same environmental conditions was performed in order to develop a descriptive database containing: a) morphometric traits, b) the genetic structure, c) the extensive metabolic fingerprint in terms of volatile composition, polyphenolic and triterpenoid content, and d) the ‘bio-activity’ on the embryonic development of Ascaridia galli eggs for highly divergent accessions. This study revealed the existence of essential oil rich chemotypes superior in morphometric characteristics, containing high carvacrol content (> 75%) and traces of thymol (< 5%), according to the requested international standards. Apart from genotypes considered as ‘high yield essential oil-producers’ (> 6%), accessions of highly productivity of ‘green’ raw materials rich in polyphenols and triterpenoids were also identified. According to their rosmarinic acid content, Greek oregano accessions were classified in three groups; 1) those with significantly high concentration (1640–2726 mg 100 g⁻¹ dry weight), 2) those expressing intermediate content (1103–1200 mg 100 g⁻¹ dry weight), and 3) the ones with significantly low content (< 873 mg 100 g⁻¹ dry weight). A total of 118 polymorphic alleles were identified using sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAPs) and simple sequence repeat (SSRs) markers, while 2 genetic clusters based on a single data matrix with SRAPs and SSRs alleles, were identified. The presence of private bands in some accessions was also observed, which can be used in future breeding programs for germplasm authentication purposes. As a result this study provides a comprehensive knowledge on metabolic and genetic diversity of Greek oregano accessions native to Greece, as well as powerful tools for the selection of starting genetic materials for subsequent breeding studies to create superior cultivars. The multifaceted approach was developed to exploit the genetic resources of Greek oregano in further breeding programs for subsequent selection of genotypes with desired traits.

H. indicus (L.) R. Br. roots are widely used in traditional medicine systems in India. D. hamiltonii Wight & Arn. It looks like H. indicus and is substituted in the traditional herbal market. Five marker compounds, namely lupeol, lupeol acetate (LA), β-sitosterol (BS), ρ-coumaric acid (PC) and protocatechuic acid (PCA) were quantified, and the method was validated. Separation of lupeol (R_f max 0.48), LA (R_f max 0.75) and BS (R_f max 0.36) was achieved using hexane: ethyl acetate (8:2, v/v) and scanned at λ520 nm after derivatization with vanillin–sulphuric acid reagent (VSR). For PC (R_f 0.59) and PCA (R_f 0.47), the separation was performed using toluene: ethyl acetate: formic acid (7:5:0.5, v/v/v) and scanned at λ254 nm. The validation parameters include linearity, accuracy, precision, the limit of detection and quantification (LOD and LOQ), repeatability, specificity and recovery as per ICH guidelines. Lupeol, LA and BS were found to be present in both plants; PC was present in H. indicus, and PCA was present in D. hamiltonii. The calibration plots were linear in the range (μg/band) of 5–15 for lupeol; 20–45 for LA; 1–5 for PC; 5–20 for BS, and PCA. The LOD were 0.0181, 0.023, 0.080, 0.0021 and 0.0019 (μg/band) for lupeol, LA, BS, PC and PCA, respectively, concerning area, correlation coefficients (r²) were 0.9980, 0.9988, 0.9958, 0.9998 and 0.9938 for lupeol, LA, BS, PC and PCA respectively. The validated high-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method provided an excellent linear relationship for all the quantified analytes; hence it may be used for quantitative estimation of the above markers to assess the quality of H. indicus and D. hamiltonii or herbal formulations containing them.

A thorough critical analysis of the existing literature on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in spices provides significant findings. Although the International Standard Organisation (ISO) has listed about 109 plant products as spices and fifty or more spice crops are commonly used worldwide, AMF studies in spices currently are limited. However, a high diversity of forty-one species of AMF is reported from the rhizosphere of ten spices included in this study. Among the AMF species, Glomus spp. (some of which are now known by new names), followed by Acaulospora spp., dominate spice fields. In spices, the AMF provides nutritional benefits such as increased accumulation of P and other nutrients, especially K, N, Fe, Zn, and Mn. Thereby, AMF boosts the photosynthetic activity of spices by enabling them to have more chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments. Thus, AMF directly contributes to diverse plant growth characteristics, including fruiting quality and seed yield in spices. AMF also stimulates secondary metabolite production in spice crops by directly enhancing biomass production or indirectly activating the secondary metabolite synthesis pathway. The synthesis of terpenoids in spices is connected with increased absorption of nutrients such as phosphorus. Thus, AMF contributes indirectly to the quality of spices. Experimental studies state that AMF is crucial in certain spice crops' biofortification, especially selenium (Se). The extra nutritional benefits of AMF in the cultivation of spice crops include overcoming diverse environmental stresses, pests, and diseases. Therefore, AMF is a well-known inevitable biological component in spice fields, essential to sustainable cultivation of spices and improved spice quality. However, among the AMF known in spices, identification up to the species level is not available in many cases. Knowledge of AMF concerning soil types, seasons, and other environmental variables is limited. Moreover, the ecology of AMF in spice fields, especially optimization of factors concerning the effectiveness of specific AMF in specific spices, is significant to its application as a natural tool for sustaining soil fertility and crop productivity. Therefore, intensive research on AMF diversity of more spice crops over diverse soil and agroclimatic regions in different seasons has become essential worldwide. In addition, AMF activity concerning the root morphology and architecture in specific spices is also significant. Such studies need to be complemented with intensive experimental studies for optimization in variables (plant, fungal, and other environmental factors) in the judicious application of AMF in cultivating spices. A comprehensive review of research on all such aspects of AMF applications in spice crops has yet to appear in the literature. Since the global deman