Assessing the morphological characters for taxonomic significance in interspecific variations of Rauwolfia serpentina and Rauwolfia tetraphylla

Abstract

The genus Rauwolfia L. (Apocynaceae) comprises of 80 species distributed in tropics of the world. India is the largest producer of medicinal herbs and is appropriately called the botanical garden of the world.  Two species of Rauwolfia, viz., R. serpentina (L.) Benth. and R. tetraphylla occur in India. Rauwolfia serpentina is the source of indole alkaloids, including the therapeutically useful compound ‘reserpine’ to treat cardiovascular hypertension, breast cancer etc. Pharmacological activity of Rauwolfia tetraphylla is due to the presence of alkaloids that expresses the central nervous system and lowers blood pressure. The root is also used to stimulate uterine contraction and is recommended for use in difficult child birth cases. Though considerable variations can be observed in gardens around the world, attempts have not been made so far to study the morphological relations among Rauwolfia serpentina and Rauwolfia tetraphylla. In view of these facts the study was conducted for the identification of plant by doing assessment of morphological relationship between two selected species of Rauwolfia using leaf – length, breath, seed- color, texture, stem- color, texture, bark, etc., may be useful to legitimatize conservancy of commercially important species. Thus a complementary method based on plant morphology for the identification of Rauvolfia species of the region is essential and is provided. In this context, this work can lead to development of an efficient protocol to study the morphological relationship between two selected species of Rauwolfia using morphological characters.