Verma & sarkar (2014). Nat Prod Res. 2014 Aug 18:1-2

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Decalepis arayalpathra (J. Joseph &
V. Chandras.) Venter, an endemic and
endangered ethno medicinal plant from
Western Ghats, India

Sunil K. Vermaa & Manoj K. Sarkarb
a CSIR – Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road,
Hyderabad 500 007, India
b Tamil Nadu Forest Department, Government of Tamil Nadu,
Coimbatore 641 043, India
Published online: 18 Aug 2014.

To cite this article: Sunil K. Verma & Manoj K. Sarkar (2014): Decalepis arayalpathra (J. Joseph &
V. Chandras.) Venter, an endemic and endangered ethno medicinal plant from Western Ghats, India,
Natural Product Research: Formerly Natural Product Letters, DOI: 10.1080/14786419.2014.947498

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2014.947498

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Downloaded by [Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology] at 23:42 22 August 2014 Natural Product Research, 2014
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2014.947498

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Decalepis arayalpathra (J. Joseph & V. Chandras.) Venter, an endemic
and endangered ethno medicinal plant from Western Ghats, India

Sunil K. Vermaa* and Manoj K. Sarkarb*

aCSIR – Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad 500 007, India; bTamil Nadu
Forest Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore 641 043, India

(Received 25 June 2014; final version received 19 July 2014)

Decalepis arayalpatra is an endemic and critically endangered plant of India. May
2014 issue of Natural Products Research publishes the findings of R. S. Verma et al. on
the chemical composition of D. arayalpatra. This study was conducted to characterise
the root aroma of this plant for possible industrial applications. The authors suggest that
due to its peculiar vanilla flavour, the plant could be explored as a potential substitute of
vanillin-aroma in the flavour industry. Owing to the fact that D. arayalpatra is a
critically endangered plant species, and its habitat is now limited to only the protected
areas and reserve forest in southern part of India, and that collecting any plant from
such reserve forests for commercial activities is illegal as per the law of the country,
this specific conclusion of the authors is totally un-substantiated by the law of land,
hence, calls for further review.

Keywords: Decalepis arayalpathra; endemic plant of India; critically endangered
plant of India; vanilla flavour

Dear Editor,
In the May 2014 issue of Natural Products Research, Verma et al. have published their

findings on the chemical composition of Decalepis arayalpathra, an endemic and endangered
plant of India, found in southern Western Ghats. The authors have collected the tuberous healthy
roots of D. arayalpathra (Voucher No: CIMAPH-009) from the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger
Reserve (KMTR) in Tirunelveli district and Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) in
Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, India. Based on gas chromatography/flame ionization
detector (GC/FID) and GC –mass spectrometry, the authors have identified that the specific
component 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzaldehyde is present in abundance (96.8%) in the volatile
oil fraction obtained from the tuberous healthy roots of this plant, and that this component is
responsible for its characteristic vanillin-like flavour. The authors further conclude and
recommend that D. arayalpathra can be explored as a potential substitute of vanillin-aroma in
the flavour industry (Verma et al. 2014).

D. arayalpatra is a globally endangered plant, which grows in Montane grasslands in the
form of bushes through tuberous root system in exposed gneissic rock (Garnet – Biotite) crevices
and small cracks. The main threats to D. arayalpatra are habitat disturbance mainly because of
plantation crops like tea raised in Chinna – Manjolai Estate and also at Netrikal during British
period and afterwards, collection of tubers illegally by local people and people from the
neighbouring state of its endemism like Kerala for medicinal purpose and also for making pickle

*Corresponding authors. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

q 2014 Taylor & Francis

Downloaded by [Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology] at 23:42 22 August 2014 2 S.K. Verma and M.K. Sarkar

and sarbat (a local soft drink) (Pushpagadan et al. 1990; Sarkar 2012). As per the conservation
assessment management plan studies of the year 1994– 98 (Ravikumar et al. 2000), and that of
the year 2004– 09 (Sarkar 2012), the survival status of this plant remains as follows: range
, 100 km22, area occupied , 10 km2, number of populations/locations – six only in southern
Western Ghats, India, present population trends – declining (Sarkar 2012). Due to the
fragmented nature of the populations, their small size in narrow endemic zone of distribution and
the anthropogenic activities, this species is susceptible to catastrophic events of further erosion
unless time-bound care is taken for this plant in its place of occurrence (Sarkar 2012). Hence, the
present status of the species comes under Critically Endangered category as per the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidelines. Some minor efforts (only academic
exercise) have been undertaken to restore the plant in its natural habitat with the help of micro-
propagation (Gangaprasad et al. 2005), however, the survival status of this species sill remains
critical.

The narrow endemic zone of population distribution of D. arayalpatra is only found in the
Wildlife Protected Area namely KMTR in Tirunelveli district and KWS in Kanyakumari
district of Tamil Nadu, and Reserved forest area of Thiruvanthapuram District in Kerala, India
(Sarkar 2012). As per the Indian law, collection of anything from such protected area or even
from the reserved forests is illegal (Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, its Amendment 2006, and
Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill 2013).

In this view, collection and industrial exploitation of this plant species for vanilla industry as
suggested by Verma et al. (2014) is totally un-substantiated by the law of the country, hence is
illegal. Moreover, Vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) is a tropical orchid, which is cultivated in India in
abundance, particularly in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and there is no scarcity of vanilla
in the country. In the USA – castoreum (the exudate from the castor sacs of the mature North
American Beaver, Castor canadensis) has been approved by Food and Drug Administration as a
natural substitute of Vanilla (Burdock 2007). Thus, recommending endangered D. arayalpatra
to be explored as a substitute of abundantly available Vanilla may not be justified scientifically
too. Hence, we strongly oppose to this specific conclusion of the authors (Verma et al. 2014) and
recommend a call for further review of this paper.

References

Burdock GA. 2007. Safety assessment of castoreum extract as a food ingredient. Int J Toxicol. 26:51–55.
Gangaprasad A, William Decruse S, Seeni S, Nair GM. 2005. In vitro propagation and ecorestoration of Decalepis

arayalpathra (Joseph and Chandra.) Venter, an endemic, endangered ethnomedicinal plant of the Western Ghats.
Indian J Biotechnol. 4:265–270.
Pushpagadan P, Rajasekharan A, Ratheeshkumar PK, Jawahar CR, Radhakrishnan K, Nair CP, Amma LS, Bhatt Aicrpe
AV. 1990. ‘Amrithapala’ (Janakia arayalpatra, Joseph & Chandrasekharan), a new drug from the kani tribe of
Kerala. Ancient Sci Life. 4:212–214.
Ravikumar K, Ved DK, Vijaya Sankar R, Udayan P. 2000. 100 red-listed medicinal plants of conservation concern in
Southern India. Bangalore: Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions, 467 pp.
Sarkar MK. 2012. Biodiversity governance for managing endemic and threatened medicinal plants in India – a
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Verma RS, Mishra P, Kumar A, Chauhan A, Padalia RC, Sundaresan V. 2014. Chemical composition of root aroma of
Decalepis arayalpathra (J. Joseph and V. Chandras.) Venter, an endemic and endangered ethnomedicinal plant
from Western Ghats, India. Nat Prod Res. 15:1202–1205.