Indian Tribal population is known for their self-sustainability, including their robust natural health and trivial lifestyle, further traditionally relied on medicinal plants throughout history. The evolutionary history of the ethnic-medicinal bulbous geophyte has long been a contention in monocot systematics. In India, the genus is represented by a species array. Moreover, the phylogeny delimitation amongst them is poorly defined to date. Phenolics, sterols, proteins and some other phytochemicals of Drimia have also been isolated for pharmacological and clinical studies that have strongly recommended their background effect of geographical positioning. Through several in vivo and in vitro studies, extracts derived from Drimia species demonstrated biological activity, including antifungal antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory antioxidant, and insecticidal properties. This review highlights the comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of Indian spp. of Drimia and the multi-omics-based approach for species delineation, the discovery of candidate genes and the development of plant-based drugs, as well as the long-term utilisation of plant pharmaceutical resources.

Drimia indica, a medicinal plant with promising therapeutic potential, aimed to understand the role of the NAC gene family in plant development and stress responses to enhance its medicinal properties and agronomic traits. We identified and characterized sixty-one non-redundant putative NAC genes, analyzing their physicochemical properties, which exhibited variations in amino acid composition, length, molecular weight, and isoelectric points. Subcellular localization prediction revealed diverse protein distributions, mainly within the nucleus. Phylogenetic analysis classified the NAC genes into 17 subgroups, showing distribution differences between Drimia indica and Arabidopsis. Gene structure analysis unveiled a conserved intron-exon organization within each subfamily. Motif analysis identified ten conserved motifs, with 'Motif 5' being the most prevalent. Promoter analysis detected cis-elements responsive to light, abscisic acid, methyl jasmonate, and MYB transcription factors. Additionally, transcription factor binding site analysis revealed several families potentially regulating NAC gene expression. MiRNA target analysis highlighted the significant role of miRNAs in the post-transcriptional regulation of NAC genes. Our findings offer valuable insights into the structural characteristics, regulatory mechanisms, and potential functions of the NAC gene family in Drimia indica, advancing our understanding of plant stress responses and suggesting future research avenues for stress tolerance and secondary metabolite production.