ABSTRACT:The genus Mucuna Adans. is represented by 100 species distributed in the world tropics (Lackey 1981;Mabberley 2005). India is one of the natural center of origin of Mucuna. Up to now there are 11 species and three varities of Mucuna reported in India. Mucuna pruriens is useful for medicinally where as Mucuna pruriens var. utilis used for food and fodder purpose (Janardhanan and Lakshmanan 1985;Pugalenthi et al. 2005). Mucuna sanjappae is one of the important medicinal plants since it contains high amount of L-dopamine, which significantly proved as antiparkinson's drug (Patil et al. 2015). Mucuna macrocarpa is also medicinally important because of its antileukemic effects on human leukemic cells (Kaun-Hung et al. 2012). For the characterization and identification of the proper species the chromosome studies are utmost important. The present work is the first report on karyomorphological analysis of two species of Indian Mucuna viz. M. sanjappae which is endemic to northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra and Mucuna macrocarpa from North-East India. Both the species represented by the chromosome number of 2n = 22. The karyotype formula for M. sanjappae is 11m, while that for M. macrocarpa is 10m + 1M. Total chromosome length in M. sanjappae is 25.15µm while that in M. macrocarpa it is 25.58 µm. Both the species show highly symmetrical karyotype i.e. (1a).
KEYWORDS:Mucuna sanjappae, Mucna macrocarpa, Karyotype, India.The genus Mucuna is represented by 11 species and three varities from India. Recently Mucuna laticifera which is newly described from Sikkim, northeastern India by Ingalhalikar et al (2017). The genus was revised by Wilmot-Dear (1987) from Indian subcontinent and Burma which yielded nine species of Mucuna. The genus is of great importance because of its medicinal value i.e. it contains some antiparkinson's drugs. It has been used as a source of food and as a soil improving and pasture crop (Duggar 1899). Mucuna species come from China and Eastern India where it is widely cultivated as green manure (Burkill 1966;Duke 1981 andWilmot-Dear 1984). Mucuna sanjappae newly discovered by Aitawade and Yadav (2012) is endemic to North Western Ghats of India. Habitat of Mucuna sanjappae is different from that of the other Mucuna species, it is found on hilly area, where as the remaining Mucuna found near water bodies. It is perennial, woody climber, 4-5 cm in diameter and 15-20 m long, leaves are pinnately trifoliate. Their inflorescence is 40-42 cm long, flowers are dark purple in color. Pods are slightly curved and golden brown in color, seeds are black in colour and blotched, and ellipsoid in shape. Mucuna macrocarpa is found in north-east India, It grows on high altitude, it is also perennial woody climber, up to 60 m long, stem 25 cm in diameter, leaves trifoliate, inflorescences 30-40 cm long, corolla purple, standard green. Pods are 30-40 cm long, seeds are black in color, hilum encompassing more than half of the seed circumference. After reviewing available literature on cytological studies of Mucuna...