Suhara Beevy | University of Kerala (original) (raw)

Papers by Suhara Beevy

Plant and plant based medicines are the basis of the modern pharmaceuticals we use today for our ... more Plant and plant based medicines are the basis of the modern pharmaceuticals we use today for our various ailments. The present study investigates the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the major bioactive constituents of the medicinally important plant Boerhavia diffusa L. The study noticed the presence of alkaloids, tannins, flavanoids, saponin, terpenoid and phenols and absence ofcardiac glycoside in the ethanol, chloroform and petroleum ether extracts.The estimation of phytochemicals revealed that the quantities of flavonoids (5.651 g/100 g) and phenols (2.471 g/100 g) were higher than alkaloids (0.232 g/100 g). Moisture content, total fibre, dry weight, bulk density, total ash content, acid soluble and insoluble ash content, water soluble and insoluble content, sulphated ash were determined in the proximate analysis. The high total ash value (23.09%) suggests that the plants are rich sources of minerals since the ash content of a sample is a reflection of the minerals it contains. The Nutritional analysis includes biochemical analysis (carbohydrate, protein, fat and vitamins), mineral analysis (micro elements and macro elements) and anti-nutrient analysis. The carbohydrate (10.56 mg/gm) and protein (5.76 mg/gm) content of the plant was high though the quantity of fat (1.61 mg/gm) was in a lower concentration. The major element present in plant is magnesium (142.9 mg/100 g). Since the whole plant is being consumed as part of various treatments, it necessitates the analysis of its nutritional, anti-nutritional, proximate and biochemical composition, which may be helpful to establish a standard natural drug for further research.

Interrelationships between the wild and cultivated species of Cucumis L. and their F 1 hybrid was... more Interrelationships between the wild and cultivated species of Cucumis L. and their F 1 hybrid was analyzed based on morphological, crossability, chromosome pairing behaviour and seed-protein profiles. Morphologically the wild species, C. pubescens Willd., was found to be distinct from the cultivated taxa C. melo var. melo L. Hybridization studies using the cultivated variety, C. melo and the wild taxa, C. pubescens revealed that the two species of Cucumis were cross compatible. Most of the morphological characters of the F 1 hybrid were intermediate to that of their parents. Fertile hybrid with normal bivalents (n=12) indicated genomic relationships between the wild and cultivated taxa. Seed protein profile revealed that banding pattern of parents and hybrid were closely related, thereby corroborates the close morphological and cytogenetical affinities of the wild and cultivated taxa. The study suggests the possibility to transfer some of the agriculturally important characters of the wild to the popular cultivated varieties through hybridization.

Morphological variation was analyzed in wild accessions and cultivars of the vegetatively propaga... more Morphological variation was analyzed in wild accessions and cultivars of the vegetatively propagated dioecious Coccinia grandis. Variations of 43 morphological characters, 19 qualitative and 23 quantitative traits, were analyzed among 40 female accessions, including 25 cultivars and 15 wild accessions. Multivariate statistical analyses were used to group accessions according to their morphological similarity. Principal component (PC) analysis revealed that the first three PCs accounted for 50% of the total variance, and differences among the accessions were evidenced principally in relation to fruit characteristics such as fruit weight, fruit length and the number of seeds in each fruit. Analysis of variance carried out in the entire germplasm revealed significant differences within the germplasm, whereas ANOVA carried out between the wild accessions and the cultivars proved the null hypothesis that there are no significant differences between the two groups, and differences were observed only in fruit characters that are targets of human selection. Principal component analysis, UPGMA cluster analysis and discriminant factor analysis revealed strong overlaps between the two groups indicating the ongoing process of evolution and selection in the species.

Karyomorphological studies in twenty five accessions of Amorphophallus collected from four biogeo... more Karyomorphological studies in twenty five accessions of Amorphophallus collected from four biogeographic zones of India comprising of seven wild species and 18 morphotypes and wild relatives of A. paeoniifolius revealed differences in chromosome numbers. Three chromosome numbers viz., 2n=28 for all the A. paeoniifolius accessions, A. dubius, A. smithsonianus and A. sylvaticus; 2n=26 for A. bonaccordensis, A. hohenackeri and A. commutatus; and 2n=3×=39 for A. bulbifer were recorded. Based on karyological characters, a scheme for the evolution of chromosome number in the species of Amorphophallus was framed. Zarco's asymmetry indices revealed that the accessions T2 (A. bonaccordensis) and T3 (A. smithsonianus) are the more evolved species in terms of karyotype symmetry. According to the classification of Stebbins, A. bonaccordensis included in 3B category was the most asymmetrical and hence considered as most evolved. Amorphophallus paeoniifolius var. campanulatus with A1=0.40-0.43 appeared to be more evolved than A. paeoniifolius var. paeoniifolius based on Zarco's asymmetry indices. Slight differences observed in the A 1 values (0.1714-0.37) in the accessions of A. paeoniifolius var. paeoniifolius demonstrate the close relationship of the accessions. Among the A. paeoniifolius accessions, TF% varied between 35.34 % (GJ) to 43.6 % (K3-1) with TF% of 37.64 in T10. Taxa with asymmetric karyotype tend to have low TF% and accordingly cv. Gajendra (GJ) and cv.karunaikizhangu (T10) (both A. paeoniifolius var. campanulatus) having low TF% can be considered as highly evolved among the A. paeoniifolius accessions. UPGMA clustering based on five karyotypic parameters namely total chromosome length (TCL), average chromosome length (ACL), chromosome number, TF% and ratio of longest chromosome (LC) to shortest chromosome (SC) of the complement revealed two principal clusters at a Euclidean distance of 1.3 and such clustering pattern is in tune with the morphological data which leads to make a valid assumption that A. dubius may be the immediate ancestor of cultivated forms.

Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson is a tuberous herb occurring in the wild and cult... more Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson is a tuberous herb occurring in the wild and cultivated state. Vegetative morphological characters were studied at full foliage stage in 17 accessions of A. paeoniifolius which include two cultivars, 15 wild accessions and a related species, A. dubius Blume. The first principal component (PC) accounted for 42.32% of phenotypic variance followed by second for another 18.38%. Major traits that accounted for more variability in both PC1 and PC2 include offset shape, cormel weight per corm, corm fresh weight, petiole surface pattern and canopy spread. The unweighted pair-group method with mathematical averaging (UPGMA) clustering method revealed three principal clusters which separated all the accessions between Euclidean distances of 0.3-1.6. Both cluster analysis and principal co-ordinate analysis revealed T10, a morphotype of A. paeoniifolius var. campanulatus (Decne.) Sivad. cultivated in Tamil Nadu and P19 accession of A. paeoniifolius var. paeoniifolius from Karnataka as morphologically distinct, which needs further validation on the basis of floral characters or molecular markers and G3 from Gujarat as an immediate ancestor of cultivated elephant foot yam. The genotypic (GCV) and phenotypic (PCV) coefficients of variation, broad sense heritability (h 2 B) and genetic advance (GA) as a percent of the mean assessed for 18 accessions revealed high heritability estimates. A highly significant (P \ 0.01) correlation coefficient between circumference of petiole base and corm diameter, corm height, corm weight, east west spread and north south spread suggests that circumference of petiole and canopy spread are indicators to corm weight and size.

In vitro propagation method using petiole and corm explants for the cultivated species of Amorpho... more In vitro propagation method using petiole and corm explants for the cultivated species of Amorphophallus paeoniifolius var. campanulatus (Decne) Sivad. cv. Gajendra is reported. The petiole slices cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing 6-Benzyladenine (BA) and 1-Naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) produced callus within four weeks of culture. Continuous maintenance of original explant along with developed callus in respective medium showed initiation of adventitious shoot buds, roots and protocorm like bodies (PLB) or corm like structures (CLS). The CLS subsequently developed into complete plants. MS medium supplemented with NAA (2.5 µM) in combination with BA (5.0 µM) was identified as the best medium for CLS induction. Histological studies of the callus revealed three developmental stages. Complete plantlets were obtained from CLS within 16-24 weeks, by maintaining the culture continuously on the same combination of initiation medium. The culturing of apical bud explants of corms on BA or Thidiazuron (TDZ) in combination with NAA resulted in the proliferation of adventitious buds. But further development was arrested. The response of corm explants to callus induction and CLS formation was very slow as compared to petiole explants. The corm explant based propagation recorded less number of CLS compared to petiole based method. Thus, plant development through CLS from petiole explants can be adopted for the large scale production of plantlets.

Plant Systematics and Evolution

Seed protein analysis and morphological characterization were carried out in one cultivated and o... more Seed protein analysis and morphological characterization were carried out in one cultivated and one wild species of Sesamum, Sesamum indicum L. and S. occidentale Regel and Heer. Data on 13 quantitative and 33 qualitative characters of the cultivated species and seven accessions of the wild taxa were analyzed. The genetic diversity of the taxa was assessed using UPGMA dendrogram and one-way ANOVA (p \ 0.05). Principal component analysis (PCA) was executed to identify the significant characters to delimit the taxa. Seed protein analysis showed diverse bands, ranging from 16 to 88 kDa. A dendrogram based on UPGMA analysis of seed protein suggested intraspecific relationships of the wild taxa as evidenced from the morphological characterization.

Indian Journal of Plant Genetic …, Jan 1, 2010

Plant and plant based medicines are the basis of the modern pharmaceuticals we use today for our ... more Plant and plant based medicines are the basis of the modern pharmaceuticals we use today for our various ailments. The present study investigates the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the major bioactive constituents of the medicinally important plant Boerhavia diffusa L. The study noticed the presence of alkaloids, tannins, flavanoids, saponin, terpenoid and phenols and absence ofcardiac glycoside in the ethanol, chloroform and petroleum ether extracts.The estimation of phytochemicals revealed that the quantities of flavonoids (5.651 g/100 g) and phenols (2.471 g/100 g) were higher than alkaloids (0.232 g/100 g). Moisture content, total fibre, dry weight, bulk density, total ash content, acid soluble and insoluble ash content, water soluble and insoluble content, sulphated ash were determined in the proximate analysis. The high total ash value (23.09%) suggests that the plants are rich sources of minerals since the ash content of a sample is a reflection of the minerals it contains. The Nutritional analysis includes biochemical analysis (carbohydrate, protein, fat and vitamins), mineral analysis (micro elements and macro elements) and anti-nutrient analysis. The carbohydrate (10.56 mg/gm) and protein (5.76 mg/gm) content of the plant was high though the quantity of fat (1.61 mg/gm) was in a lower concentration. The major element present in plant is magnesium (142.9 mg/100 g). Since the whole plant is being consumed as part of various treatments, it necessitates the analysis of its nutritional, anti-nutritional, proximate and biochemical composition, which may be helpful to establish a standard natural drug for further research.

Interrelationships between the wild and cultivated species of Cucumis L. and their F 1 hybrid was... more Interrelationships between the wild and cultivated species of Cucumis L. and their F 1 hybrid was analyzed based on morphological, crossability, chromosome pairing behaviour and seed-protein profiles. Morphologically the wild species, C. pubescens Willd., was found to be distinct from the cultivated taxa C. melo var. melo L. Hybridization studies using the cultivated variety, C. melo and the wild taxa, C. pubescens revealed that the two species of Cucumis were cross compatible. Most of the morphological characters of the F 1 hybrid were intermediate to that of their parents. Fertile hybrid with normal bivalents (n=12) indicated genomic relationships between the wild and cultivated taxa. Seed protein profile revealed that banding pattern of parents and hybrid were closely related, thereby corroborates the close morphological and cytogenetical affinities of the wild and cultivated taxa. The study suggests the possibility to transfer some of the agriculturally important characters of the wild to the popular cultivated varieties through hybridization.

Morphological variation was analyzed in wild accessions and cultivars of the vegetatively propaga... more Morphological variation was analyzed in wild accessions and cultivars of the vegetatively propagated dioecious Coccinia grandis. Variations of 43 morphological characters, 19 qualitative and 23 quantitative traits, were analyzed among 40 female accessions, including 25 cultivars and 15 wild accessions. Multivariate statistical analyses were used to group accessions according to their morphological similarity. Principal component (PC) analysis revealed that the first three PCs accounted for 50% of the total variance, and differences among the accessions were evidenced principally in relation to fruit characteristics such as fruit weight, fruit length and the number of seeds in each fruit. Analysis of variance carried out in the entire germplasm revealed significant differences within the germplasm, whereas ANOVA carried out between the wild accessions and the cultivars proved the null hypothesis that there are no significant differences between the two groups, and differences were observed only in fruit characters that are targets of human selection. Principal component analysis, UPGMA cluster analysis and discriminant factor analysis revealed strong overlaps between the two groups indicating the ongoing process of evolution and selection in the species.

Karyomorphological studies in twenty five accessions of Amorphophallus collected from four biogeo... more Karyomorphological studies in twenty five accessions of Amorphophallus collected from four biogeographic zones of India comprising of seven wild species and 18 morphotypes and wild relatives of A. paeoniifolius revealed differences in chromosome numbers. Three chromosome numbers viz., 2n=28 for all the A. paeoniifolius accessions, A. dubius, A. smithsonianus and A. sylvaticus; 2n=26 for A. bonaccordensis, A. hohenackeri and A. commutatus; and 2n=3×=39 for A. bulbifer were recorded. Based on karyological characters, a scheme for the evolution of chromosome number in the species of Amorphophallus was framed. Zarco's asymmetry indices revealed that the accessions T2 (A. bonaccordensis) and T3 (A. smithsonianus) are the more evolved species in terms of karyotype symmetry. According to the classification of Stebbins, A. bonaccordensis included in 3B category was the most asymmetrical and hence considered as most evolved. Amorphophallus paeoniifolius var. campanulatus with A1=0.40-0.43 appeared to be more evolved than A. paeoniifolius var. paeoniifolius based on Zarco's asymmetry indices. Slight differences observed in the A 1 values (0.1714-0.37) in the accessions of A. paeoniifolius var. paeoniifolius demonstrate the close relationship of the accessions. Among the A. paeoniifolius accessions, TF% varied between 35.34 % (GJ) to 43.6 % (K3-1) with TF% of 37.64 in T10. Taxa with asymmetric karyotype tend to have low TF% and accordingly cv. Gajendra (GJ) and cv.karunaikizhangu (T10) (both A. paeoniifolius var. campanulatus) having low TF% can be considered as highly evolved among the A. paeoniifolius accessions. UPGMA clustering based on five karyotypic parameters namely total chromosome length (TCL), average chromosome length (ACL), chromosome number, TF% and ratio of longest chromosome (LC) to shortest chromosome (SC) of the complement revealed two principal clusters at a Euclidean distance of 1.3 and such clustering pattern is in tune with the morphological data which leads to make a valid assumption that A. dubius may be the immediate ancestor of cultivated forms.

Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson is a tuberous herb occurring in the wild and cult... more Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson is a tuberous herb occurring in the wild and cultivated state. Vegetative morphological characters were studied at full foliage stage in 17 accessions of A. paeoniifolius which include two cultivars, 15 wild accessions and a related species, A. dubius Blume. The first principal component (PC) accounted for 42.32% of phenotypic variance followed by second for another 18.38%. Major traits that accounted for more variability in both PC1 and PC2 include offset shape, cormel weight per corm, corm fresh weight, petiole surface pattern and canopy spread. The unweighted pair-group method with mathematical averaging (UPGMA) clustering method revealed three principal clusters which separated all the accessions between Euclidean distances of 0.3-1.6. Both cluster analysis and principal co-ordinate analysis revealed T10, a morphotype of A. paeoniifolius var. campanulatus (Decne.) Sivad. cultivated in Tamil Nadu and P19 accession of A. paeoniifolius var. paeoniifolius from Karnataka as morphologically distinct, which needs further validation on the basis of floral characters or molecular markers and G3 from Gujarat as an immediate ancestor of cultivated elephant foot yam. The genotypic (GCV) and phenotypic (PCV) coefficients of variation, broad sense heritability (h 2 B) and genetic advance (GA) as a percent of the mean assessed for 18 accessions revealed high heritability estimates. A highly significant (P \ 0.01) correlation coefficient between circumference of petiole base and corm diameter, corm height, corm weight, east west spread and north south spread suggests that circumference of petiole and canopy spread are indicators to corm weight and size.

In vitro propagation method using petiole and corm explants for the cultivated species of Amorpho... more In vitro propagation method using petiole and corm explants for the cultivated species of Amorphophallus paeoniifolius var. campanulatus (Decne) Sivad. cv. Gajendra is reported. The petiole slices cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing 6-Benzyladenine (BA) and 1-Naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) produced callus within four weeks of culture. Continuous maintenance of original explant along with developed callus in respective medium showed initiation of adventitious shoot buds, roots and protocorm like bodies (PLB) or corm like structures (CLS). The CLS subsequently developed into complete plants. MS medium supplemented with NAA (2.5 µM) in combination with BA (5.0 µM) was identified as the best medium for CLS induction. Histological studies of the callus revealed three developmental stages. Complete plantlets were obtained from CLS within 16-24 weeks, by maintaining the culture continuously on the same combination of initiation medium. The culturing of apical bud explants of corms on BA or Thidiazuron (TDZ) in combination with NAA resulted in the proliferation of adventitious buds. But further development was arrested. The response of corm explants to callus induction and CLS formation was very slow as compared to petiole explants. The corm explant based propagation recorded less number of CLS compared to petiole based method. Thus, plant development through CLS from petiole explants can be adopted for the large scale production of plantlets.

Plant Systematics and Evolution

Seed protein analysis and morphological characterization were carried out in one cultivated and o... more Seed protein analysis and morphological characterization were carried out in one cultivated and one wild species of Sesamum, Sesamum indicum L. and S. occidentale Regel and Heer. Data on 13 quantitative and 33 qualitative characters of the cultivated species and seven accessions of the wild taxa were analyzed. The genetic diversity of the taxa was assessed using UPGMA dendrogram and one-way ANOVA (p \ 0.05). Principal component analysis (PCA) was executed to identify the significant characters to delimit the taxa. Seed protein analysis showed diverse bands, ranging from 16 to 88 kDa. A dendrogram based on UPGMA analysis of seed protein suggested intraspecific relationships of the wild taxa as evidenced from the morphological characterization.

Indian Journal of Plant Genetic …, Jan 1, 2010