Thaya Jenjittikul

• Ph.D. (Horticulture), Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.
• Professor (Assistant) at Mahidol University

The rhizomes of plants in the genus Alpinia (Zingiberaceae) have been used as food, spices, and traditional medicine in Thailand. The crude ethanolic extracts from the fresh rhizomes of selected Alpinia species, including A. galanga var. galanga, A. galanga var. pyramidata, A. oxymitra, and A. siamensis, were proposed to be explored for their activ...

Thailand is the biodiversity hotspot of genus Kaempferia (Zingiberaceae) and harbours 14 species belonging to K. subgenus Protanthium. To better understand the taxonomic circumscription and verify the taxonomic status, the present characterization of cytogenetic characters included all recognized and one undescribed species of K. subg. Protanthium...

Taxonomic study of Kaempferia subgen. Protanthium (Zingiberaceae) is difficult due to a high degree of intraspecific morphological variation in several species and the implied morphological overlap among the currently recognized species. Herein, we clarify the taxonomic circumscription of K. noctiflora, a rare species endemic to Chiang Mai Province...

Curcuma lithophila Škorničk. & Soonthornk. is an endemic Zingiberaceous plant of Thailand that is found only in Kanchanaburi Province. According to its long peduncles coupled with colorful inflorescences, this plant has a high potential for becoming a new economic cut-flower or ornamental plant. For these reasons, C. lithophila is collected from it...

Curcuma ignea Ruchis. & Jenjitt., a new species in Curcuma subg. Ecomatae from Thailand, is described here. This species is distinct from others by the combination of open flowers and L-shaped anthers. It is most similar to Curcuma glans but differs by having anther spurs pointing outwards (vs divergent), remotely pilose corolla lobes (vs glabrous)...

Introduction: K. larsenii (Zingiberaceae) is an endemic and rare species in Thailand. There have been no previous reports on chemical compositions and biological properties of essential oils from the fresh root and rhizome. This research aims to investigate the chemical compositions, antimicrobial and radical scavenging activities of essential oils...

This research presented a propagation protocol for Dorcoceras brunneum C.Puglisi, which is an endangered plant of Thailand, using plant tissue culture technique. The 2nd and 3rd leaves, 3.5 – 4 cm long and 1.5 – 2 cm wide, were cut from shoots of 16-week-old axenic shoots and were chosen as explant material. Then, only middle and basal parts of the...

Importance of the work: Boesenbergia longiflora (Wall.) Kuntze is a medicinal plant in the family Zingiberaceae. Currently, there are no known published reports on the chemical composition and biological activities of essential oils from the roots and rhizomes of B. longiflora. Objectives: To investigate the chemical composition of the essential oi...

Iris collettii Hook.f. and I. domestica (L.) Goldblatt & Mabb. are perennial plants that have a high potential as new economic ornamental plants due to their beautiful flowers. However, these plants are typically propagated through seeds or bulbs which cannot achieve large volumes of plants to the floriculture industry. Thus, to prevent the problem...

Hedychium longicornutum Griff. ex Baker is a Zingiberaceous plant that has been used for traditional medicines and ornamental purposes. Though this plant is a vulnerable plant of Thailand, it has a high potential to be promoted as a new economic ornamental plant due to its exotic inflorescences. However, the usage of this valuable plant on a large...

Boesenbergia rotunda (Zingiberaceae), an aromatic perennial herb, has been used in ethnomedicine as an antiflatulent, antidiarrheal, and antirheumatism agent. In this study, the genetic variation of three types of B. rotunda from Thailand, one wild type (‘Krachai Pha’) and two cultivars (‘Krachai Ban’ and ‘Krachai Deang’), was studied by analyzing...

This research presented an in vitro propagation method of Coleus albicalyx (Suddee) Suddee, an endemic plant and also classified as a rare species of Thailand. Seeds surface was sterilized before culturing on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium. After the 8-week-old seedlings at 4 cm in height were achieved, the nodal segments contained the first node...

The hydrodistillated essential oil from the fresh rhizomes of Curcuma petiolata was investigated for its chemical constituents and antioxidant activity. Its chemical constituents were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) technique. The major component of the essential oil from the C. petiolata fresh rhizomes was found to be -fa...

Stephania kaweesakii (Menispermaceae), a new tuberous species from Thailand, is described and illustrated. It is morphologically similar to S. pierrei but can be distinguished by having thick-scaled (vs. smooth and papery) tuber bark, male flowers with 3 or 4 petals (vs. absence of petals).

A new species, Scaphochlamys longipedunculata (Zingiberaceae), is described and illustrated here. It is similar to Scaphochlamys grandis but differs in having 1- or 2-leaved shoots (versus shoots with 5 or more leaves) and peduncle length c.17 cm (versus peduncle length c.7 cm).

The genus Zehneria belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family and includes plant species that contain glycosides and sphingolipids in roots and leaves. Some species of Zehneria are used in local folk medicine for curing skin diseases. It also shows antimicrobial and antitumour activities. In Thailand, Zehneria platysperma is classified as an endemic plan...

Gentiana nudicaulis Kurz subsp. lakshnakarae (Kerr) Halda is a rare plant and found only in Thailand. Therefore, the conservation of this plant species through the mass-propagation method based on plant tissue culture technique is the aim of this study. The investigation of suitable explant type and strength of Murashige & Skoog (MS) medium for cul...

Kaempferia albiflora Jenjitt. & Ruchis., a new species from Northern Thailand, is described. It is similar to K. grandifolia Saensouk & Jenjitt. but differs in having erect, lanceolate to elliptic leaves, lobes of the labellum with a rounded apex, and a trilobed anther crest, whereas K. grandifolia has broadly ovate leaves appressed to the ground,...

Kaempferia aurora sp. nov. Noppornch. & Jenjitt., from Tak province near the Thailand-Myanmar border, and K. caespitosa sp. nov. Noppornch. & Jenjitt., from Lampang province, northern Thailand, are described as new species of K. subgen. Protanthium (Horan.) Baker. Their diagnostic characters are compared with those of similar species. Detailed illu...

Gagnepainia godefroyi K. Schumann, 1904 and G. harmandii K. Schumann, 1904 belong to the genus Gagnepainia K. Schumann, 1904 of the Ginger family. They have the potential to be developed as medicinal and attractive ornamental plants. To date, the knowledge on the cytological and reproductive aspects of Gagnepainia have not been publicly available....

Curcuma candida is a conservation-vulnerable species, rare and endemic to the Tenasserim Range (Thio Khao Tanaosri). This species was initially classified into the genus Kaempferia, based on morphology of specimen from Myanmar, and was given the name K. candida in 1830, but the first specimen from Thailand was only discovered in 2000. With the addi...

A new lignan, thoreliin A (1), and a new bisnorlignan, thoreliin B (2), were isolated from a MeOH extract of the rhizomes of Boesenbergia thorelii. In addition, the known bisnorlignans 3 and 4, neolignan 5, phenylpropanoids 6-15, as well as benzenoids 18-21 were also obtained from the same source. The structures were elucidated based on their spect...

Curcuma candida (Wall.) Techapr. & Skornick. (Zingiberaceae), a semi-endemic plant, is classified as a vulnerable plant and estimated to be at risk of extinction. Therefore, conservation of this plant needs to be concerned. This study aimed to investigate in vitro propagation protocol of C. candida. Leafy-shoot base of natural grown C. candida were...

Curcuma putii Maknoi & Jenjitt., a new species from central Thailand, is described here. This species is similar to C. ecomata, a species in Curcuma subg. Ecomatae, but differs from it by having yellow staminodes, whitish-green or pale-green bract, and 15–40 cm long peduncle.

The chemical compositions of hydrodistilled essential oils from different ages of fresh rhizome of A. siamemsis (6 and 9 month) were analysed by GC-MS technique. 1, 8-Cineole was obtained as the main component in both essential oils (20.49 and 29.68%, respectively). The antioxidant activities of two essential oils were evaluated by DPPH radical sca...

Kaempferia graminifolia, a new species belonging to subgen. Protanthium with unique grass-like foliage is described and illustrated. A preliminary IUCN conservation assessment finds that the status of this endemic species is Vulnerable.

Plants in genus Kaempferia (Zingiberaceae) have been used as folk medicine in several countries. Identification and classification of Kaempferia plants are difficult because of the morphological similarity between species. In this study, phylogenetic relationships of Kaempferia species were employed by inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) fingerprin...

The Hydro-distillated essential oil and crude ethanolic extract from the fresh rhizome of Elettariopsis wandokthong were investigated for antioxidant activity by DPPH radical scavenging, hydroxyl radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging, ferrous ion chelating and ferric reducing power assays. L-ascorbic acid and EDTA were used as a p...

The chemical compositions of essential oils stream distillated and water distillated from the fresh roots and rhizomes of C. angustifolia from Thailand were analyzed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) technique. The antioxidant activities of essential oils were evaluated by using six various methods including DPPH radical scavenging, h...

Kaempferia noctiflora, another precocious flowering species of Kaempferia subgen. Protanthium (Zingiberaceae) from Northern Thailand is described and illustrated. Pure white flowers with nocturnal anthesis and a tinged purplish red patch along the midvein of the upper surface of the leaves are the unique characters of this new taxon. The morphologi...

Globba williamsiana ‘Dok Khao’ is a native ginger of Thailand. This plant has the outstanding characteristics of bract and inflorescence which have been used as an ornamental ginger for cut-flowers and potted plants. To increase the economic value of this plant, improvement is required. Chromosome doubling by colchicine is a general method for impr...

Several Kaempferia species, endemic to Thailand, are rare and therefore entitled to conservation status; other species are widely cultivated. We conducted extensive cytogenetic investigation of this genus to elucidate the botanical and taxonomic characterization of these plants. The study included 42 accessions belonging to 15 Kaempferia species an...

Induced mutation is an important tool to increase the genetic variation in breeding program. Kaempferia rotunda was introduced to induce mutation by gamma irradiation for improving its ornamental trait. In vitro young shoots of K. rotunda were used as plant material for acute irradiation at the dose of 0–30 Gy. After irradiation, the LD 50 was 16.5...

The chemical compositions of volatile oils from rhizomes of 9 Zingiber species were elucidated by GC/MS technique. One hundred and seventeen compounds, ca. 96.83– 100% of the total amounts of oils were identifi ed by comparing their mass fragmentation pattern with Adams Essential Oil Mass Spectral library. This study provided the fi rst report on t...

The present research aimed to investigate a possible relationship between rhizome stelar anatomy and current phylogenetic fern classifications. Forty-eight species of Thai ferns belonging to 46 genera in 25 families were collected from the field and their stelar anatomy was investigated using the paraffin method. Haplostele, actinostele, solenostel...

The essential oil from the fresh rhizome of Elettariopsis wandokthong Picheans. & Yupparach (Zingiberaceae) was obtained by hydrodistillation. Forty eight compounds were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) technique. The three major compounds were camphene (22.51 %), fenchyl acetate (9.11 %) and 1, 8-cineole (8.12 %). This is...

Kaempferia simaoensis, another precocious flowering species of Kaempferia subg. Protanthium (Zingiberaceae) from Kanchanaburi and Tak, Thailand is described. This new record species is closely similar to K. rotunda, but it is characterized by narrowly ovate anther crest with obtuse to shallowly 3-lobed apex, the middle lobe more elongated than oute...

Kaempferia rotunda L. was introduced to plant improvement programs by polyploidy induction for developing new ornamental gingers. In order to improve some characteristics of K. rotunda, tetraploid plants were induced by in vitro culturing young shoots of K. rotunda on gelrite modified MS medium supplemented with 0.2 % colchicine for 4 days. After i...

The hydrodistillate essential oil from the fresh rhizomes of Curcuma leucorrhiza Roxb. was investigated for chemical constituents by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and antioxidant activities by five different methods including DPPH radical scavenging, hydroxyl radical scavenging, hydrogen peroxide scavenging, ferrous ion chelating and...

Phylogenetic analyses have revealed extensive evolutionary lability of morphological characters in the large genus Impatiens. This potentially complicates taxonomic classifications, especially if these are based on analyses which include a limited number of characters and taxa. In this study we focus on the systematics of previously poorly represen...

Triploidy is relatively common in Curcuma, especially among vegetatively propagated species in cultivation. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent of triploidy and the level of genome size variation among commercially cultivated phyto-oestrogen producing Curcuma and related species in Thailand. Meiosis was also examined in order to val...

The essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation of the rhizomes of Curcuma rhabdota Sirirugsa & M.F. Newman was analyzed by GC-MS. Twenty two components, corresponding to 97.55%, were identified. The three major components were germacrone (24.36%), butanoic acid, butyl ester (14.19%) and butanoic acid-1-methylpropyl ester (8.80%).

Nineteen microsatellite markers were developed from Boesenbergia siamensis (Gagnep.) P. Sirirugsa, an endemic plant of Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand and used to determine genetic diversity of this plant. The number of alleles of each locus varied from 4 to 16 in 25 individual samples. The average values of observed and expected heterozygosities w...

The essential oils hydrodistilled from root and rhizome of Zingiber niveum Mood & Theilade from Laos were analyzed by GC-MS technique. A total of 28 compounds were identified. Major components of the essential oils from its root were found to be elemicin (60.97%), 3β-24-methylene-9,19-cyclolanostan-3-ol (17.67%) and pentadecane (12.73%), whereas th...

Impatiens suksathanii Ruchis. & Triboun, a new species from a limestone area in Kanchanaburi Province in Southwestern Thailand, is described and illustrated. This endemic new species is clearly distinguished from the most similar I. namkatensis T.Shimizu by having sessile to very short petioles, linear, narrowly lanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate...

The conventional seed propagation of H coronarium produced very few seedlings. This species has tendency to be endangered if appropriate propagation is not applied. Shoot buds of H. coronarium were cultured on MS semi-solid medium for shoot proliferation. The effects of plant growth regulators (PGRs), 2, 4 and 8 ppm 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) and 0.5...

Food plants used by Hmong from six villages in Mae Rim district, Chiang Mai province, Thailand, were studied during March 2012 to February 2013. Eight informants were interviewed individually in the fi eld and information was verifi ed for three times. One hundred and thirty species documented belongs to 58 families and 105 genera. Two threatened p...

A micropropagation protocol for Gagnepainia godefroyi K Schum and G thoreliana (Baill) K Schum, two rare medicinal plants of Thailand, has been developed using terminal buds. After a total of twenty weeks of culture (4 weeks on MS added with 36.33 μM TDZ and 16 weeks on PGR-free MS), 28.77 and 13.50 shoots/explant were obtained, respectively. Rooti...

In vitro propagation of Stemona hutanguriana W.Chuakul, an endangered species of Stemonaceae, was established. Nodal and internodal explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with thidiazuron (TDZ) alone or in combination with 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). When cultured on MS medium supplemented with 18.16 μM TDZ with...

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Thai Traditional Medicine (TTM) is available in many modern hospitals in Thailand. However, there have been difficulties in integrating TTM, particularly the practices of the use of herbal medicines, into modern healthcare services. Kabchoeng Hospital is one hospital that has been able to overcome these difficulties...

Kaempferia rotunda is introduced as an ornamental ginger with attractive foliage. Colchicine is well known as an anti-mitotic chemical that is widely used for chromosome doubling to improve several ornamental cultivars. The effect of colchicine incubation time on tetraploid induction of K. rotunda was studied. In vitro young shoots of K. rotunda we...

We studied the effects of explant types, plant growth regulators, and sucrose concentrations on shoot and microrhizome inductions of Curcuma comosa Roxb., an important Thai medicinal plant for women’s health. Explant types significantly affected shoot induction of the plant. The maximum shoot multiplication rate of 11.82 ± 1.03 shoots/responding ex...

Genetic variation and species authentication of 71 Kaempferia accessions (representing 15 recognized, six new, and four unidentified species) found indigenously in Thailand were examined by determining chloroplast psbA-trnH and partial petA-psbJ spacer sequences. Ten closely related species (Boesenbergia rotunda, Gagnepainia godefroyi, G. thorelian...

A large amount of banana genetic resource has been found in Thailand which is believed to be one of the centers of its origins. To assess genetic diversity and determine genetic relationships of edible bananas in Thailand, 110 accessions of banana species and cultivars collected from villages and natural locations were investigated. UPGMA clusterin...

Wan-chak-motluk is a Thai local name for native species of Curcuma (Zingiberaceae) that produce phytoestrogen in their rhizomes. Wan-chak-motluk has long been used in Thai traditional medicine for treatment of illness in the uterus and ovarian hormone deficit, and therefore it is cultivated for economic purposes throughout Thailand. The rhizome mor...

Genetic relationships of 15 Boesenbergia species were examined using AFLP analysis. A total of 893 fragments were generated from six primer combinations; of these, 99.78% were polymorphic. The mean genetic distance between pairs of taxa ranged from 0.435 to 0.935. The neighbor-joining tree resolved investigated species into two separate lineages (c...

Laosanthus gen. nov. is described and illustrated. Its taxonomic position is discussed.

Genetic variation and molecular phylogeny of 22 taxa representing 14 extant species and 3 unidentified taxa of Boesenbergia in Thailand and four outgroup species (Cornukaempferia aurantiflora, Hedychium biflorum, Kaempferia parviflora, and Scaphochlamys rubescens) were examined by sequencing of 3 chloroplast (cp) DNA regions (matK, psbA-trnH and pe...