The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : An attempt to conserve the State’s rich flora

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Saturday, Oct 20, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

An attempt to conserve the State’s rich flora

Sharath S. Srivatsa

Rare plant species being documented using DNA fingerprinting

BANGALORE: Rare and endangered medicinal and aromatic plant species of the Western Ghats are being documented by the Horticulture Department using the DNA fingerprinting technique.

The measure has been precipitated by the rapid destruction of the Western Ghats and the high demand for medicinal plants from drug manufacturers.

Big demand

For example, “sarpagandha,” a medicinal plant found in the forests, is in great demand for its efficacy in treating hypertension and many other ailments, but is now an endangered species.

Its medicinal value is in its roots, for which the entire plant is uprooted, and this unscientific harvesting method is a cause for its depletion in the wild.

Some of the other medicinal and aromatic plants in the Western Ghats that are facing extinction are “mesua,” “punnaga,” “lodra,” “kampilaka,” “maramanjalu,” and “agarbathi gida” (agar wood tree), “cancer gida” (mapia), “noni,” “trichopus” and “nagakesara.”

Documentation

The department’s Biotechnology Centre at Hulimavu in Bangalore has already documented 185 medicinal and aromatic plant species.

Karnataka is the only State to initiate such an exercise on this scale.

The project, supported by the National Horticulture Mission (NHM), would greatly help conserve and propagate Karnataka’s rich flora diversity.

It can also be used as a scientific document in legal standoffs and as a document to find the inter-specific distance between species of same genus.

Over the next two years, the centre will complete DNA fingerprinting on at least 650 medicinal and aromatic plants.

A project initiated by the Horticulture Director K. Ramakrishnappa, it has taken around a month for the scientists to map each plant species.

The fingerprinting exercise has been completed for “sarpagandha,” “ashwagandha,” “dhavana,” “pudina,” “adathoda,” “stevia,” “salacia,” “hippali” and “tulsi.”

Patent cases

The centre’s Deputy Director M. Vishwanath said, “DNA fingerprinting provides the basis in international law, and can be used in fighting cases related to patents or claims made by any other country.”

Value

These rare and endangered plants have economical as well as educative value in society and are a part of traditional wealth, Mr. Vishwanath said.

“In fact, the Controller General of Intellectual Property Rights added DNA fingerprinting as one of the criteria to secure Geographical Indications tag for horticultural crops after the initiative taken up by Karnataka,” he said.

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