Research Symposium-2013
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Browsing Research Symposium-2013 by Subject "Ayurveda"
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Item Effect of Different Potting Media for Vegetative Propagation of Tippili (Piper longum and Piper samentosum)(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2013) Sudasinghe, S.P.; Alwis, L.M.H.R.; Marasinghe, P.Tippili is a widely used ayurvedic medicinal raw material in Sri Lanka. There are two types of tippili, known as, wal tippili and gas tippili (Personal contact ayurvedic physicians). Those two herbs were identified as separate species: Piper longum and Piper samentosum, which belong to the family Piperaceae and native to South and South East Asia. It is a dioecious, perennial herb with a thick, erect and branched rootstock and an ascending or prostrate stem (Huber, 1987). Although those plants can be grown in wet regions in Sri Lanka, tippili is highly cultivated in low country wet zone. The economic important parts are roots and dry spikes of female plant, which are generally used for its several medicinal and spicy properties. Availability of tippili as raw material in Sri Lanka is not sufficient to cater the requirement and the demand of the tippili plant has been increased. Therefore, Sri Lanka has to import tippili from South Bihar region in India (Abeywardana and Hettiarachchi, 2001). According to Department of Ayurveda (Technical branch), Sri Lanka has expended US $ 246485 for tippili spikes and US $ 43009 for tippili roots. India is a leading country which is producing ayurvedic products and they export adulterants due to high demand. Those adulterants do not have proper medicinal value. As a result final medicinal value of local ayurvedic products could be reduced. Therefore, it is better that local requirement of tippili to be produced within our country. Most of Sri Lankan tippili plants are female plants (Samuel, 1982) and the seed production is very low. Therefore, tippili plant is difficult to multiply through the seed propagation. According to Samuel (1982) it is grown as a medicinal plant to a limited extent in village homesteads in Sri Lanka. Stem cutting is a present method follows the multiplication of tippili plant. There are no recommended potting mixture, environmental requirements, cuttings and other planting materials available for vegetative propagation. The aim of this study was to find out the effective potting medium, polythene type and species for vegetative propagation of tippili for commercial scale cultivation using stem cuttings. Methodology This study was carried out at National Research Medicinal Plant Garden in Haldummulla using three factor factorial CRD design. The three factors considered that can be affected on vegetative propagation were two species of tippil (P. longum and P. samentosum), polythene treatment combinations were used with three replicates. Four different media: media 1 – M1 (Sand: Coir dust 1: 1), media 2 – M2 (Soil: Coir dust 1: 1), media 3 – M3 (Sand: Soil: Coir dust 1: 1: 1), media 4- M4 (Sand: Soil: Coir dust 1: 1: 1) were prepared as potting media which were sterilized using sunlight method. Three nodal cuttings (height-about 5 inches) were taken from each species. The performance of P. longum and P. samentosum plants was evaluated by recording dry weight of plant roots after 90 days of cuttings established, length of the root (length of longest root) and shoot height. Data analysis of the experiment was conducted using an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) procedure of the Minitab version 16.Item Taxonomical Identification of Maha Aratta (Alpinia galanga (L.) Sw.(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2013) Dissanayake, R.M.L.A.; Alwis, L.M.H.R.; Marasingh, P.Alpinia galanga (L.). is one of the valuable rare plant amongst the important medicinal herbs used in traditional medicine. It is commonly known as ‘Maha Aratta’ in Sri Lanka, and has been recognized in different traditional system of medicines for the treatment of vario us diseases. Being a member of family Zingiberaceae, plant rhizomes are rich in volatile oils and other phytoconstituents. In Ayurveda, rhizome of this plant is used to prepare arishtas, asavas, bronchitis, anti-fungal, anti-tumor, antihelmintic, anti-diuretic, anti-ulcerative, disease of heart, rheumatic pains, chest pain, dyspepsia, fever, diabetes, liver and kidney diseases etc. (Chudiwal et al., 2009). This plant is adulterated in Sri Lanka due to similar morphological features of some other species, lack of identification knowledge and rare availability. In Sri Lanka, the main problem of this plant is that there are other closely similar plants that are misidentified as A. galanga (L.). The correct botanical identification of plants is one of the steps that will guarantee success of herbal drug technology, herbal treatments and herbal products etc. The present studydet dnwc saw to identify the genuine Maha Aratta which can be prescribed as a traditional medicine by local physicians without any doubt by developing a descriptor for identification. Methodology This study was carried out in wet and intermediate agro ecological zones of Uva Province. Six different species: Alpinia galanga (L.) Sw., Alpinia calcarata Roscoe, Alpinia malaccensis (Burm.f.) Roscoe, Hedychium flavescens [Carey ex] Roscoe, Hedychium coronarium Koenig, Hedychium coccineum [Buch.-Ham. Ex] were collected and used to differentiate each other by observing morphological features. In order to distinguish Alpinia galanga (L.) Sw. from the other similar plants, openion taken from Ayurvedic medicinal practitioners in Badulla and Bandarawela area, and information collected from the National Herbarium of Sri Lanka, Peradeniya were used. The qualitative characters: leaf arrangement, vein arrangement, leaf shape, leaf color, leaf fragrance, leaf blade shape of base, leaf blade shape of apex, leaf angle, leaf apex habit, flower color, flower fragrance, rhizome color, fresh rhizome fragrance, dry rhizome fragrance and oil gland density were observed. The Quantitative characters: height, number of leaves per tiller, mature leaf length, mature leaf width, internode length, ratio between leaf length and width, number of flowers per inflorescence, number of petals per flower, flower length, inflorescence length and rhizome perimeter were observed. The characters shown high variability were used in development of the descriptor. Results and Discussion Sixty four plant samples having similar characteristics and mis identified as maha aratta were collected from twenty locations from the eleven agro ecological zones in Uva province (Table 1). From 64 plants collected only Alpinia galanga (L.) Sw. plant was recorded in National Research Medicinal Plants Garden Haldumulla. It reveals that A. galanga (L.) Sw. plant is very rarely available plant in Uva region. Traditional Ayurvedic medicinal practitioners pointed out that due to the rare availability and lack of plant identification knowledge in Sri Lankan traditional medicine system, both A. calcarata Roscoe and A. malaccensis (Burm.f.) Roscoe plants are highly misidentified as A. galanga (L.) Sw. Also it showed that IU3c agro ecological zone hass favourable condition and therefore, all these species are well habitat in this area. Agro ecological zone IL2 does not have much favourable conditions for these plants.