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Wild and cultivated genetic resources of Cucurbitaceae in Eastern Ghats A. Trichosanthes tricuspidata B. Benincasa hispida C. Citrullus colocynthis D. Citrullus lanatus E. Coccinia grandis F. Corallocarpus epigaeus G. Cucumis melo H. Cucumis sativus I. Cucurbita maxima J. Cucurbita moschata K. Diplocyclos palmatus L. Legenaria siceraria
Source publication
Wild plant genetic resources of economic importance to the local people and even the national community are often neglected in germplasm expeditions and conservation activities in the Eastern Ghats, India. It is due to the lack of documented information on their usefulness. Cucurbitaceae or gourd family is of considerable economic importance and is...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... the conservation of genetic resources of the Eastern Ghats. A total of 38 wild and cultivated species belonging to 17 genera were collected and identified in the Eastern Ghats of Peninsular India. ( Figure 2 and 3) Out of 38 species, 30 were used medicinally, 33 were edible, 6 were used as fodder and 2 were found to be poisonous to humans and their domestic animals. These medicinal plants are known to cure different ailments. The main ailments in the study area were leprosy, boils, pimples, diuretic, snakebites, diarrhea, dysentery, eczema, diabetes, cough, malaria, asthma, epilepsy, antioxidant etc., Half of the remedies for the above ailments are taken orally, followed by external applications. 33 species of fruits are used as vegetables. In Citrullus colocynthis , Cucurbita maxima, Momordica charantia, M. cymbalaria, M. dioica and M. ...
Similar publications
The objective of this work was to evaluate the evolutionary dynamics of the wild-weedy-domestic gene pool of Cucurbita argyrosperma squash by estimating the levels of genetic diversity and gene flow in the putative area of its domestication. Nine populations were collected, and DNA was extracted from young leaves harvested separately from approxima...
Citations
... Most of the Cucurbitaceae members are climbers and are identified by their tendrils, angular stems, and pepo fruit. The important vegetable crops under cucurbits are Momordica, Luffa, Lagenaria, Cucumis, Benincasa, and Trichosanthes (Murthy et al. 2013) which are considerably cultivated in the subtropical and tropical countries of the world (Ajuru and Nmom 2017). ...
Solena amplexicaulis (Lam.) Gandhi is a creeping cucurbit with high medicinal values in terms of its therapeutic uses. Traditionally, this plant species is used as a folklore medicine for the treatment of various disorders like spermatorrhea, urinary retention, jaundice, and cardiovascular disorders. Owing to high medicinal importance, it is overexploited, which has resulted in decrease in its population size in the wild. Furthermore, its natural propagation through root tubers and seeds is limited. In view of this constraint, the present study of in vitro micropropagation was chosen as an alternative for its propagation and conservation. Murashige and Skoog (MS) media amended with plant growth regulators like 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and thidiazuron (TDZ) independently and with a combination of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) were tested for in vitro shoot induction by using nodal explants. The highest number of shoots (32.84±0.02) per explant was achieved on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with 1.0 mg L-1 TDZ and 1.5 mg L-1 IAA. The induced shoots were elongated with a maximum shoot length of 10.25±0.01 cm on MS medium augmented with 2.0 mg L-1 gibberellin (GA3) and 1.5 mg L-1 TDZ. Rooting of in vitro raised shoots was attained on half-strength MS medium fortified with 1.0 mg L-1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and 2.0% sucrose. The hardening of resultant complete plantlets was carried out in plastic cups by using a 2:1 ratio of sterile black soil and sand; initially, they were kept in greenhouse conditions and subsequently shifted to natural field conditions with 78% of survival rate. The genetic fidelity of tissue-cultured plants was confirmed by ISSR (inter simple sequence repeats) and SCoT (starting codon targeted) primer-based analysis.
... Only small number of people have this knowledge and if not documented early, the huge and glorious past of the Buksa will be disappeared from the society. Many ethnobotanical studies have been conducted throughout the country over the years [19][20][21][22], but still there is lot of work to be done in order to document the plants and their traditional uses [23][24][25]. The documentation and further research on medicinal plants is highly required for the preparation of plant-based drugs [26][27]. ...
The present paper aimed at reporting the traditional indigenous knowledge related to the preparation of medicines by a primitive tribe of Uttarakhand i.e., the Buksa tribe. In this study 109 plant species were recorded which belongs to 53 families. The Buksa tribe uses the plant to prepare the medicines in order to cure many diseases. Herbs are most used plant type. It has been noticed that leaves are most used part of the plant for the preparation of medicines by the tribe. The Family Fabaceae (18%) followed by Malvaceae and Moraceae (13% each) and Apocynaceae (11%) were the dominant family of plants used by the tribe. It has been noticed that the knowledge related to the ethnobotany is only bound to the old agers. The young generation is lacking this knowledge. Buksas are used to be the best medical healers but passing of knowledge from one generation to other generation is decreasing. Their indigenous knowledge of preparing the medicine is also not documented earlier by them. The traditional knowledge which passes from one generation to another verbally is now in a disappearing state. Thus, it is the need of the hour to document the precious knowledge which can be used by the future generations.
... Cucurbitaceae, a family distributed more in tropical regions, provide a major economic and cultural function in many societies (Yang & Walters 1992;Rafael & Caballero 2002;Purba and Silalahi 2021). It consists of diverse type of fruits and vegetables that are consumed raw as salad or dessert fruit, cooked, pickled, candied, used in confectionaries (Murthy et al. 2013), and have medicinal value due to the presence of cucurbitacins that possess wide-ranging oxidation properties (Rajan and Markose 2007). Rutaceae is another family distributed primarily in tropical and sub-tropical regions (Kubitzki et al. 2011) and having vast economic value. ...
Background: Edible plants that are neither cultivated nor domesticated but can be found in their natural habitat are known as wild edible plants (WEPs). In times of food scarcity, WEPs give a valuable natural nutritional supply as food, diet, and nutrients. Methods: An ethnobotanical field study was conducted in eleven villages of Purmandal using focused group discussions, and interviews through semi-structured questionnaires. Information was gathered from a total of 153 informants (115 females and 38 males). Informants were briefed about the objectives of the study and Prior Informed Consent (PIC) was obtained as per Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The various uses of WEPs were quantified as use-reports, and Cultural Importance Value (CI) and Factor informant consensus (Fic) were calculated. Results: Altogether 58 plants belonging to 51 genera and 34 families were used as WEPs. Cucurbitaceae and Rutaceae (5 species each) were the most represented families, and leaves and fruits were the most frequently used plant parts. The contribution of herbs, shrubs, and climbers were 36.2%, 37.9%, and 15.5%, respectively. The maximum CI was recorded for Mangifera indica L., Phyllanthus emblica L., and Bauhinia variegata (L). Benth. The values of Fic varied between 0.95 (medicinal usage) and 0.99 (chutney preparation). Conclusion: Locals of Purmandal have good knowledge of WEPs. Traditional products made from WEPs like Mangifera indica, Phyllanthus emblica and Bauhinia variegata can be commercialized to improve the economic status of the locals. Furthermore, the nutritive values of important species may be studied. Keywords: Wild edible plants, Purmandal, Food security, Sustainable agriculture.
... Flowers are greenish-white; fruits are oval, finely reticulate, red when ripe, and seeds are ovate-oblong; leaves are ovate-suborbicular with a cordate base, angular or 3-5 lobed; and seeds are ovate-oblong. 14,15 Z. scabra is a traditional Ethiopian medicinal plant that is often used to cure a variety of ailments. For example, the Amhara ethnic community uses the leaf juice to treat fever and headaches. ...
Background
Wounds continue to be a difficult clinical problem, with early and late consequences causing significant morbidity and death. As a result, proper wound management is critical. In addition to contemporary medicine, medicinal herbs serve an essential role in the treatment of wounds and bacterial infections. Z. scabra is a medicinal plant that has traditionally been used to treat wounds. However, there are no scientific reports on solvent fraction wound healing activities. As a result, the current study presents a scientific assessment of the wound healing ability of the solvent fractions of Z. scabra leaves.
Methods
The leaves were crushed and macerated three times in 80% methanol. Chloroform, ethyl acetate, and aqueous fractions of simple ointment at 5% w/w and 10 percent w/w strengths were prepared using the fusion technique based on the British Pharmacopoeia. Excision and incision wound models were used to assess the solvent fractions’ wound healing activities. The anti-inflammatory efficacy of crude and solvent fractions was tested in mice utilizing a carrageenan-induced hindpaw edema model.
Results
In rats, a test dose of 2000 mg/kg of the 10% w/w crude extract ointment was found to be safe. Groups treated with the 5% and 10% ethyl acetate fractions of the extract experienced significant (p<0.05 and p<0.01) wound reduction in the excision wound model. When compared to the negative control, the length of epithelization in groups treated with 10% ethyl acetate fraction and aqueous fractions of Z. scabra was statistically significant (p 0.001). By lowering the amount of carrageenan-induced paw edema, the leaf extract and the chloroform fraction of Z. scabra demonstrated a dose-dependent anti-inflammatory effect.
Conclusion
The extract showed remarkable wound healing and anti-inflammatory activity and might be recommended for the treatment of many types of human wounds.
... In general, Cucurbitaceae displays phenotypic variation in flower, leaf, and fruit characteristics. Most of species have the maximum number of flowers and fruit observed between September and January (Murthy et al., 2013). ...
Micronutrient malnutrition is a major problem in developing
countries affecting women, children and infants. Biofortification,
improved soil health and waste management efficiencies have
been used to overcome nutrient deficiencies. Application of classical
breeding and selection resulted in rapid development of
staple crops through breeding. The Cucurbitaceae mainly pumpkins
and squashes (Cucurbita moschata Duch., Cucurbita pepo L.,
Cucurbita maxima Duch. ex Lam), cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.),
watermelon (Citrullus lanatus L.), and melon (Cucumis melo L.)
possess beneficial vitamins and minerals that can be used as
nutrients for human consumption. To improve nutritional content
in Cucurbitaceae, understanding the information in the genome
is important for breeders to increase the level of nutrition and
quality of characteristics using biotechnology approaches.
Nonconventional breeding approaches can assist conventional
breeding to save time, costs, and efficacy in selection. This review
describes breeding strategies for necessary solutions toward
development of elite varieties of Cucurbitaceae via various
approaches that contain high nutrition content and improve
traits and quality to fight micronutrient malnutrition.
... It is a monoecious perennial tendrillar climber growing from tuberous roots, flowers small in size, greenish yellow in color, fruit berry. The tuber is employed in the treatment of snakebite (Nadkarni 1982;Murthy et al. 2013) and it is used to cure anti-respiratory, anti-cancer, anti-malarial, chronic venereal complaints and external application in conjunctivitis (Atal and Kapur 1982). Due to the medicinal value, it is widely used in traditional and pharmaceutical formulations. ...
Corallocarpus epigaeus (Rottler) Hook.f. is an endangered tuberous medicinal climber of family Cucurbitaceae. Despite high medicinal value, over-exploitation made it threatened. In vitro propagation has been adopted for conserving this endangered medicinal plant. Direct shoots induction was achieved from nodal explants on MS medium fortified with various concentrations of BAP and TDZ individually and BAP + IAA, TDZ + IAA, BAP + l-glutamic acid and TDZ + l-glutamic acid combinations. The highest frequency of multiple shoots (43.33 ± 0.53) was achieved on MS medium fortified with 1.5 mg/l TDZ + 1.5 mg/l IAA from nodal explants but shoot length (12.9 ± 0.15 cm) was high on MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/l TDZ and 2.0 mg/l l-Glutamic acid. The highest percentage (78%) of rooting was achieved on half strength MS medium augmented with 1.0 mg/l IBA with a mean number of roots 10.76 ± 0.30 cm, an average root length is 1.69 ± 0.07 cm. Rooted plantlets were acclimatized in the greenhouse and successfully transplanted to natural conditions with a 68% survival rate. ISSR markers were used to check the genetic fidelity between in vivo and in vitro developed plantlets. The results indicated that the micropropagated plants are monomorphic and true type when compare with mother plant.
... Some wild cucurbit species have sweet fruit pulp, and some of these are minor crops (Cucumis anguria, Cucumis metuliferus, Melothria scabra); others are bush food collected from the wild and eaten by kids, such as the fruit pulp of wild Kedrostis foetidissima, Momordica species, Solena heterophylla, and some Trichosanthes (e.g. Murthy et al., 2013). Most wild cucurbits, however, have bitter fruits, with bitterness conferred by a group of terpenoid compounds called cucurbitacins. ...
Some of the World's most valuable crops, including watermelon, honey melon, cucumber, squash, zucchini and pumpkin, belong to the family Cucurbitaceae. We review insights on their domestication from new phylogenies, archaeology and genomic studies. Ancestral state estimation on the most complete Cucurbitaceae phylogeny to date suggests that an annual life cycle may have contributed to domestication. Domestication started c. 11 000 years ago in the New World and Asia, and apparently more recently in Africa. Some cucurbit crops were domesticated only once, others multiple times (e.g. melon from different Asian and African populations). Most wild cucurbit fruits are bitter and nonpalatable to humans, and nonbitterness of the pulp apparently was a trait favoured early during domestication, with genomic data showing how bitterness loss was achieved convergently. The genetic pathways underlying lycopene accumulation, red or orange pulp colour, and fruit size and shape are only just beginning to be understood. The study of cucurbit domestication in recent years has benefitted from the increasing integration of archaeological and genomic data with insights from herbarium collections, the most efficient way to understand species’ natural geographic ranges and climate adaptations.
... The available reports also support the use of these plants against some common diseases (Tang et al., 2010;Yuvarajan et al., 2015;Castillon et al., 2012;Giday and Teklehaymanot, 2013;Teklay et al., 2013;Maroyi, 2013;Megersa et al., 2013;Rai et al., 2013;Natarajan and Dhas, 2013;Ma et al., 2014;Yaseen et al., 2015;Agarwal and Varma, 2015). Murthy et al. (2013) reported the traditional medicinal uses of some wild cucurbits from the Eastern Ghats of Odisha. The authors previously have reported the preliminary antibacterial activity (disc diffusion and agar well diffusion assay) of some common wild cucurbits (Tripathy et al., 2014a;Tripathy et al., 2014b;Tripathy et al., 2014c) of SBR. ...
Similipal Biosphere Reserve (SBR) is situated in the district of Mayurbhanj, Odisha. It forms the major part of Eastern Ghats having rich floral diversity. SBR is inhabited by many tribal communities too. They are in habit of using the wild phytoresources against different microbial infections. Wild cucurbits are prime components of the phytoresources of SBR. Keeping this in view, four wild cucurbits (Trichosanthus tricuspidata, Diplocyclos palmatus, Cucumis melo, Trichosanthus cucumerina) were collected from SBR and experimented for their antibacterial activities against five selected bacterial strains (Streptococcus mutans-MTCC 497, Streptococcus pyogenes-MTCC 1926, Vibrio cholerae-MTCC 3906, Shigella flexneri-MTCC 1457 and Salmonella typhi-MTCC 1252). The MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) of the extracts was determined using broth dilution assay. Results revealed that the methanol extract of T. tricuspidata fruits showed lowest MIC values against S. pyogenes whereas the acetone and methanol extract of C. melo fruits showed lowest MIC values against S. mutans. The paper highlights a comparative account of antibacterial potential of wild cucurbits collected from SBR and activity of the extracts against specific bacterial species.
Solena amplexicaullis (Lam.) Gandhi, is a multipurpose minor cucurbit with occasional occurrence in biodiversity hotspots of Asian subcontinent and most of the plant parts are used for traditional medicine. Farmers are involved in cultivation and conservation of this species based on ethno botanical and traditional knowledge, completely unaware of its nutritional attributes and economic potential. Its botany, biochemical and nutritional traits alongwith adapted agronomical practices, propagation and future prospects are discussed here. This preliminary study will be useful for identification, distribution and standardization of sustainable management practices for its commercial cultivation as a vegetable in the human diet.
