Diversity of Garcinia species in the Western Ghats: Phytochemical Perspective

Abstract

I am delighted to write a Foreword to the Book 'Diversity of Garcinia species in the Western Ghats: Phytochemical Perspective' edited by my student Dr. K. B. Rameshkumar who took Garcinia imberti as a subject for his doctoral studies. It gives me all the more pleasure and gratification to see that he continued with his studies on Garcinia species of the Western Ghats along with his students and colleagues. Unlike many other doctoral students, he kept alive his passion for the studies on Garcinia and the present book is the outcome of his dedicated efforts during the last one and a half decades. Pursuit of science is a passion and unravelling the subtleties of nature is an ecstasy which fulfils the inner urge for quest and discovery.The genus Garcinia is important by virtue of their reputation in traditional medicines, established pharmacological activities, diversity in chemical structures and potential nutritional properties. Despite recent progress in phytochemical and pharmacological studies on Garcinia species world over, significant gaps still exist concerning the exploration of the vast data on phytochemical diversity of Garcinia species. The present book provides a comprehensive and updated report on different aspects including distribution, conservation, morphology, chemotaxonomy, molecular taxonomy and pharmacology of Garcinia plants, with emphasis on Western Ghats species. Its specific focus on the Phytochemistry of Garcinia species is a great contribution to the lesser known subject Phytochemistry, especially in India. The authors are experts in their relevant field of research, as revealed by the contents and the in-depth presentation of individual chapters. The compiled data may provide useful clues to promote further investigations for the development of new lead molecules and value added products from Garcinia species. Furthermore, the book will give basic information on possible conservation strategies for the Western Ghats Garcinia plants. I personally am privileged to present this elegant work on 'Phytochemistry of Garcinia species' before the scientific community.

Molecular Analysis and Phytochemical Profiling to Explore the Diversity of Garcinia Species Collected from Western Ghats of India

“…G. indica and G. gummi-gutta are indigenous species and distributed strictly to the Western Ghats. From the current study supported by the morphological characters and origin and distribution of species, it was confirmed that cluster dispersion of G. indica and G. gummi-gutta from other species and they were placed in Section Brindonia (Jones 1980, Parthasarathy et al 2013, Shameer et al 2019, Singh 2009. Sobir et al (2011) found the same results of clustering in Garcinia species from Indonesia.…”

“…Garcinia L. is a pantropically distributed genus with high species richness in SE Asia, and composed of 240 species (Saleh 2006). In India the genus Garcinia is represented by 43 species including 9 endemic to the Western Ghats only (Shameer et al 2019). For genus Garcinia Western, Ghats is considered as secondary centre for origin (Abraham et al 2006).…”

“…G. hombroniana Pierre), G. xanthochymus Hook. f. ex T. Anderson and G. mangostana L. are introduced (Shameer et al 2019). These indigenous and introduced species provides important resources in Indian continent.…”

Experimental and theoretical evidence for effective corrosion mitigation in mild steel using novel Garcinia gummi-gutta leaf extract

“…Malabar tamarind, scientifically termed as Garcinia gummi-gutta , is usually perceived in Southeast Asia, coastal Karnataka/Kerala, India and west and central Africa. The leaves of Garcinia are rich in hydroxyl citric acid and it contains several phytochemical compounds like tannin, phlobatannin, saponin, flavonoids, terpenoids and cardiovascular glycosides (Garden, 2016). The chemical structure of Garcinia gummi-gutta leaf is given in Scheme 1.…”