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Centella asiatica (L.) Urban is a highly considered medicinal plant owing to its secondary metabolites asiaticoside, madecassoside, asiatic acid, and madecassic acid. The asiaticoside, one of the most important constituents of the plant, is a triterpenoid saponin having memory enhancement property. Given its medicinal properties, we isolated and characterized endophytic fungi from this plant with the aim to screen these microorganisms for asiaticoside production. In total, we isolated 13 endophytic fungi from the leaves of the plant, out of which one of the isolates produced asiaticoside. This asiaticoside producing isolate was identified as Colletotrichum gloeosporioides by internal transcribed spacer-based rDNA sequencing. The presence of asiaticoside in ethyl acetate extract of C. gloeosporioides was confirmed by LC-MS. The production of asiaticoside measured in relation to incubation time and subculture generation revealed presence of 62.29 ± 3.36 µg/100 mL of asiaticoside by C. gloeosporioides on the 15th day in first subculture generation followed by a decrease in subsequent generations. A similar trend was also shown by yield and growth curve of C. gloeosporioides. The asiaticoside production and yield were found to be positively correlated. This paper reported the production of asiaticoside by an endophytic fungus C. gloeosporioides for the first time. The present findings definitely provide an impetus to the production of asiaticoside by utilizing the endophytic source. Chemical compound studied in this article: Asiaticoside (PubChemCID: 108062).

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The ecofriendly nature of materials used in synthesis and their low cost make biosynthesized nanoparticles excellent stuff for a broad range of applications in bioscience. Green nanomaterials are progressively used in agriculture to deliver plant nutrients efficiently and effectively. The present work aimed to biosynthesize zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) utilizing Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don leaf extracts to use them as a nanopriming agent for improving seed germination and seedling growth in Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn (finger millet). UV-Vis spectroscopy, FTIR, FE-SEM, EDX, and TEM were used to characterize biosynthesized nanoparticles (NPs). The peaks at 362 nm characterized UV-Vis spectra of ZnO NPs. The FTIR absorption spectrum of ZnO NPs showed Zn-O bending at 547 cm−1. The size (44.5 nm) and shape (nonspherical) of ZnO NPs were revealed by TEM image analysis. XRD confirmed the hexagonal wurtzite phase of ZnO with an average particle size of 35.19. The seed germination results revealed that ZnO-nanoprimed seeds at 500 mg/L substantially improved all the seed germination parameters, viz., plumule length (23.4%), radicle length (55%), vigor index (41.94%), and dry matter production (54.6%) compared to hydropriming (control).

The prolific plant diversity of Uttarakhand hills has provided an initial lead to the local people to look for various plant species for the purpose of food, medicine, spices and perfumes. Over the period of time, they have compiled the knowledge on the use of various plant species. The present study aims to document such information, especially the use of plants for medicine, as spice and as perfumes. Field surveys carried out in the villages of Bhatwari block have resulted in the documentation of 60medicinal, aromatic and spice plant species. These species were distributed over various life forms, like tree, shrub and herbaceous forms. For curing various ailments, the use of aboveground plant parts was relatively higher than the belowground parts. Different belowground plant forms such as root, bulb, tuber and rhizome were used for preparing herbal medicines. About 15% of these species, which include Aconitum heterophyllum Wall. Ex Royle, Rheum australe D. Don, Nordostachys jatamansi(D.Don)DC., Podophyllum hexandrum Royle, Taxus baccata L. and Angelica glaucaEdgew. have become threatened due to over exploitation, natural and anthropogenic pressures. Conservation and sustainable utilization of these valuable medicinal plant species is essential to protect the traditional knowledge regarding plants and plant based healing practices.