Molecular and chemical profiling of ‘sweet flag’ (Acorus calamus L.) germplasm from India

Abstract

In the present study, molecular (DAMD and ISSR) and chemical (α and β-asarone contents) markers were used to characterize the A. calamus genotypes procured from different parts of India. The cumulative analysis carried out for both DAMD and ISSR markers revealed 24.71 % polymorphism across all genotypes of A. calamus. The clustering patterns of the genotypes in the UPGMA tree showed that the genotypes are diverse, and did not show any specific correlation with their geographical provenances, reflecting the low level of genetic diversity and a high genetic differentiation among the genotypes from the same localities. All the 27 genotypes of A. calamus were also analyzed for α and β-asarone contents, and percentage of essential oil. The genotype (Ac13) from Kullu (Himachal Pradesh) showed maximum (9.5 %) percentage of oil, whereas corresponding minimum (2.8 %) was obtained from the genotypes from Pangthang (Sikkim). Similarly, the highest α and β-asarone contents (16.82 % and 92.12 %) were obtained from genotypes from Renuka (Himachal Pradesh) and Udhampur (Jammu & Kashmir), while lowest α and β-asarone contents (0.83 % and 65.96 %) resulted from Auranwa (Uttar Pradesh) and Pangthang (Sikkim) genotypes, respectively. A. calamus harbours tremendous economic value, and it is therefore, important to identify the genotypes with low α and β-asarone contents for its commercial utilization. Further, this study will help in evaluation and documentation of a large number of diverse genotypes for their value traits.

High Levels of Diversity in the Phytochemistry, Ploidy and Genetics of the Medicinal Plant Acorus calamus L.

“…If so, however, this would not explain the low content in the diploid population that grows along with triploid populations in the Himachal Pradesh region with similar competing species. Moreover, diploid populations from different continents with different competition stresses all show lower levels of β-asarone content [11,12,14,19,[47][48][49][50]. Thus, it is unlikely that competition stress is a viable explanation for the differences in the concentration of β-asarone among the populations.…”

“…Different levels of β-asarone concentration among diverse populations can also be attributed to seasonal variation. For example, Venskutonis et al [48] and Ogra et al [1] reported that β-asarone concentrations depend on the different plant tissues and seasonal variations. However, the β-asarone concentration within the diploid cytotypes was always lower with the range of 0-5% compared to the triploids (60-80%) and tetraploids (80-90%) [49] no matter which tissues were analyzed and which season the materials were collected.…”

α‐Asarone, β‐asarone, and γ‐asarone: Current status of toxicological evaluation

“…In case of coappearance of propenylic asarone isomers, β-asarone dominates quantitatively, whereas α-asarone occurs in contents of at most 10-15% (Council of Europe, 2008;Keller & Stahl, 1983;Varshney, Song, Ginwal, & Mittal, 2015;Wang et al, 2011;Zuo, Yang, Zhang, & Xia, 2012). Methyleugenol, (Z)-methylisoeugenol, and elemicin are other phenylpropenes which have been detected in the essential oil of A. calamus, too (Ni & Yu, 2013;Rana, Mahar, Pandey, Srivastava, & Rawat, 2013;Satyal et al, 2013).…”

Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic activity of rhizome extract of Acorus calamus (Bojho) in combination with different antimicrobial agents: Synergistic Effects

“…Tremendous numbers of chemical constituents are found in various parts of A. calamus and the major composition is βasarone (Patra and Mitra, 1981;Tamas et al, 1996;Rana et al, 2013). The rhizomes of are an important commercial commodity and of considerable medicinal and spicy value…”