Paris polyphylla: An Important Endangered Medicinal Plants of Himalayan Foothills

Abstract

Paris polyphylla is an important threatened medicinal plants found mainly in the north eastern parts of India. These rhizomatic plants are in great demands and extracted injudiciously from the wild. The rhizome is the economic part which is used for its various medicinal properties. The present article gives an account of updated information on its phytochemical and pharmacological properties and its ethno medicinal uses on account of the tale from the local people and veds, literature and their conservation aspects in the region. The review reveals that wide numbers of phytochemical constituents have been isolated from these plants. The rhizomes of the several species of the genus Paris have been used as haemostatic and anti-inflammatory agent to treat traumatic injuries, snake bites, abscess, parotitis and mastitis. For the last few decades or so, extensive research work has been done to prove its biological activities and pharmacology of its extracts. Excessive injudicious collection and harvesting from the wild has pushed these species towards extinction. Domestication, cultivation and strict laws are the need of the hour to save these species from extinction.

Traditional Uses, Active Ingredients, and Biological Activities of Paris polyphylla Smith: A Comprehensive Review of an Important Himalayan Medicinal Plant

“…For phytochemical screening, P. polyphylla rhizomes were extracted using solvents like water, methanol, ethanol, ethyl acetate and chloroform, and chemical tests were performed on all extracts. Secondary metabolites such as alkaloids, favonoids, saponins, carbohydrates, glycosides, cardiac glycosides, terpenoids, sterols, quinones, phenols, and tannins were detected by the analysis [5,14,74]. Other studies also aimed at identifying its chemical constituents, showing that steroidal saponins, favonoids, and phytosterols were the main ingredients.…”

“…Such an approach may build opportunities for farmers to enhance their confdence, skills, and knowledge and identify selfsustaining livelihood options by conserving medicinal plants in the wild. For mass scale multiplication under ex situ, there is an urgent need to develop rapid, reproducible and reliable in vitro plant regeneration systems for this species [6,14]. Due to a lack of standard cultivation protocols, its raw materials supply has exclusively depended on its natural populations.…”

“…Ecological Niche Modelling, also known as species distribution modelling, is a novel technique that combines point distributional data from species distributions with a collection of environmental raster data to produce predicted maps of species distributions in a geographic area. Using the Maxent species distribution modelling approach, as described for other species, the study linked to the prediction of the ecological niche of P. polyphylla species across the Western Himalayas (in Uttarakhand) must be conducted [14,114]. It is possible to forecast the probable distribution of the species across the Himalayan region using the various bioclimatic characteristics.…”

“…Small population size, restricted distribution, human disturbance [9], and unmanaged harvesting [10,11] lead to poor regeneration of the species [12], and failure of seed development [13] is responsible for the threat to the species. Tis results in the lack of availability of quality plant material for the future [8,14]. Tus, this is causing concern for the long-term sustainability of the natural resource, which can be met by mass multiplication and sustainable conservation of important medicinal plants.…”