This preliminary study showed promising anti-bacterial activity and moderate free radical scavenging activity of AND and ECH, and it may provide the scientific rationale for its popular folklore medicines.
Knowledge of distribution, density, and abundance of weed in a place is a prerequisite for its proper management. Parthenium hazard is a national agenda in Malaysia, and Kedah is the worst infested state in the country. Despite it, the distribution and abundance of the weed is not systematically documented. Periodical weed surveys were conducted at Kuala Muda, Kedah, during March and September 2015 to identify infested locations, to determine density, abundance, and severity of infestation, and to do mapping of weed distribution of the area. Geographic locations were recorded using a GPS. Weed density was measured following the list count quadrat method. e mapping of weed infestation was done by the ArcGIS software using data of GPS and weed density. Different letters were used to indicate the severity of infestation. Results indicated that in Kuala Muda, sixteen sites are infested having average weed density of 10.6 weeds/m 2 . e highest density was noted at Kg. Kongsi 6 (24.3 plants/m 2 ). e relative density was highest at Semeling (27.25%) followed by Kg. Kongsi 6 (23.14%). e average severity of infestation was viewed as the medium. Parthenium abundance and relative density increased by 18.0% and 27%, respectively, in the second survey conducted. e intervention of concerned authority to tackle the weed problem using integrated weed management approach is emphasized.
Soymida febrifuga (Roxb.) A. Juss., (Meliaceae) an indigenous lofty deciduous tree, endemic to India, has extensive pharmacological activity. Continuous destruction of plants due to environmental and geopolitical instability has posed a major threat to endemic tree species. In vitro propagation techniques are also problematic due to high incidence of shoot tip necrosis (STN). The effect of various culture conditions on regeneration and STN of Soymida febrifuga were investigated. Nodal segments from field grown plants were used as explants and cultured on MS supplemented with different concentrations of BA, KN, NAA and IAA. The synergistic effect of BA (2 mg/l) and NAA (0.2 mg/l) induced a mean of 6.3 ± 0.09 shoots from the nodal explants with a frequency of 80.4%. Frequent subculturing of nodal explants from in vitro derived shoots increases the number of multiple shoots, but the regenerated shoots exhibited the symptoms of STN. Various factors such as strength of the media, different carbon sources activated charcoal and different calcium sources have been investigated for reducing the incidence of shoot necrosis. STN can easily be recovered by increasing the levels of calcium. Transfer of shoots showing early signs of necrosis to half strength MS supplemented with CN (556 mg/l), CP (1.0 mg/l), AC (20 mg/l) and fructose (100 mg/l) facilitated recovery of more than 98% of the shoots. Rooted plantlets produced, using the optimized protocol, were acclimatized successfully.
This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Author MA initiated the idea of writing this review article, supervised, made all the alignments, corrections and proof reading to the script, author PV studied and drafted most of article, Author KKC drafted the antimicrobial methods part and table, Author MMS helped in tabulating the entire data for table 1 and Author IHBAR helped in data collection and reference management. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Micropropagation has been advocated as one of the most viable biotechnological tool for ex situ conservation of rare, endangered endemic medicinal plants germplasm. Rapid clonal micropropagation protocol for large-scale multiplication of an endemic medicinal plant Soymida febrifuga (Meliaceae) was established from 15-day aseptic seedling cotyledonary node and shoot tip explants. High frequency of sprouting and shoot differentiation was observed from cotyledonary node explants compared to shoot tip, on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium fortified with BA, KN, 2-iP and CM. Of the cytokinins used, BA (3.0 mgl -1 ) supported highest average number and maximum multiple shoot differentiation (16.6). In vitro proliferated shoots were multiplied rapidly by culturing nodal segments as microcuttings, further subcultured on the same media for elongation. Elongated shoots upon transfer to MS medium fortified with IBA showed rooting within two weeks of culture. Rooted plantlets were successfully hardened and 75% of rooted shoots successfully survived on establishment to the soil. Plants looked healthy with no visually detectable phenotypic variations. This protocol provides a successful and rapid technique that can be used for ex situ conservation minimizing the pressure on wild populations and contributes to the conservation of this endemic medicinally potent flora.
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