The genus Garcinia comprises c. 35 species in India many of which are endemic and economically important with immense medicinal properties. The two species viz., Garcinia imberti and G. travancorica are lesser-known endemic medium-sized straight-stemmed trees with horizontal branches. The trees are distributed in the restricted forest areas (700–1,500 m) of Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve. Both the species are dioecious trees and have male and female flowers in two different individuals, sometimes at a distance of a few kilometers from each other. A large number of mature individuals of these species have been over-exploited from Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve and therefore a few mature individuals and seedlings alone exist. The populations were severely fragmented and exist in a few locations of natural forest areas. The number of mature individuals recorded in G. imbertI and G. travancorica was 127±14 and 112±14 respectively in the entire distributional areas. There was an extreme fluctuation observed every year in the case of flowering and fruiting and also in the number of individuals due to the disturbance in the forest ecosystem. Both species have been included under IUCN threatened category and therefore they need effective conservation measures.
Impatiens courtallensis, a new species from Tamil Nadu, India is newly described and illustrated. This species is characterized by having typical opposite deccusate leaves, minute flower (≤4mm across), milky white, boat shaped lower sepal with outwardly curved tip, minute spur, seeds with prominent caruncle and typical squarish pollengrains. This combination of characters makes determining the relationships of I. courtallensis difficult.
The plant Momordica cymbalaria belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae. The Momordica genus found in the Indian states of Andhra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The plant is traditionally used for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, reumatism, ulcer, skin disease and diarrhea. It is used in the local folk medicine as an abortifacient and for the treatments of diabetes mellitus. In the present study, the powdered tuber of M. cymbalaria was successively extracted with Methanol through soxhlet apparatus. The GC-MS analysis has shown the presence of different chemical constituents in the methanolic tuber extract of M. cymbalaria. A total of 23 chemical constituents were identified in the methanolic tuber extract of M. cymbalaria. At (16.98) retention time 2,4,6-Cycloheptatrien-1-one, 3,5-bis-trimeth, Tetrasiloxane, decamethyl, and Methyltris (trimethylsiloxy) silane compound were found to be high (11.17%) and the lowest percentage (1.88%) was found to be Trimethyl (4-tert-butylphenoxy) silane, Silicic acid, diethyl bis (trimethylsilyl) ester and Cyclotrisiloxane, hexamethyl. The present study enhances the traditional usage of tuber of M. cymbalaria which possess many chemical constituents it can be used for the treatment of various diseases.
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