Polygonatum cirrhifolium Royle and Polygonatum verticillatum ( L . ) Allioni : Status assessment and medicinal uses in Uttarakhand , India

Polygnatum verticillatum (Linn) All. and Polygonatum cirrhifolium (Wall.) Royle (Liliaceae) growing in the Himalayan region is assigned as vulnerable by International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). To elucidate the status of the plants in the Uttarakhand Himalaya population assessment of the species is done in the study region. The study area is divided into five sites (Kilburry, Jageshwar, Dunagiri, Chaubattia and Aboot mount) in Kumaun division and five sites (Bhavisya Badri, Tangnath, Dayara, Bharsar and Binsor) in Garhwal division. Population is accessed based on frequency, density, abundance and importance value index (IVI) of the plants in per square meter area following Mishra (1986). Threat assessment of species was done through six parameters (that is, habitat preference, distribution range, population size, use pattern, extraction trend and native area. Ethno-medicinal uses of the plants are also documented through interview and gathering with local informers/folk healers. Some conservation strategies are also suggested.


INTRODUCTION
India possesses the world's richest medicinal plant heritage, traditional and local knowledge, and Himalaya is one of the mega biodiversity regions of the world (Heywood, 2000).In recent years, increasing attention is being paid to medicinal plant diversity due to their economic and conservation concern (Dhar et al., 2000).
It has been envisaged earlier that a number of medicinal plants of high importance are depleting at alarming rate (Tewari and Bhattacharjee, 1975).Unscientific harvesting, overexploitation of rhizome and other parts for medicinal use and consequent degradation of natural habitat along with the revival of traditional medicinal system in India and abroad, has put extra pressure on the forests, especially the medicinal plants.At least 90% of the plant species used in herbal industry today is extracted from temperate to alpine zones of the Himalaya.Some important species which are traced directly from wild habitats are: Aconitum heterophyllum, Picrorhiza kurrooa, Nardostachys grandiflora, Dactylorhiza hatagirea, podophyllum hexandrum, Polydonatum verticillatum, Polydonatum cirrhifolium, Berberis Sp., Paris polyphylla.Many species of Himalayan medicinal plants are considered as most endangered and listed in Red Data Book of Indian plants (Nayar and Sastary, 1987, 1988, 1990).In the aforesaid circumstances, their in-situ conservation and ex-situ production appears to be the only remedy.Quantitative information on the microhabitats preferences and population dynamics are lacking from the region.Studies on these aspects of commercially important plants would be very vital in developing the conservation *Corresponding author.E-mail: deepika_bhatt59@rediffmail.com strategies for the area.
Polygonatum is a genus of erect or decumbent perennial herbs belonging to family Liliaceae and distributed in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere.Thick fleshy creeping sympodial rhizomes characterize the genus.According to Miller (1754) the generic name of Polygonatum is derived from the character of the rhizome which resembles much as yovi, a Knee, because it has many little Knees.Linnaeus (1753) listed three species of Polygonatum under the genus Convallaria, namely, Convallaria verticillata, Convallaria polygonatum and Convallaria multiflora in his book 'Species Plantarum'.These were treated under the generic name Polygonatum by Alloni (1785).In the natural system of classification of Angiosperms (Bentham andHooker, 1862, 1883) family Liliaceae was classified in the series Coronarieae.Polygonatum is represented by 57 species in the world concentrated in Himalayas (Ohara et al., 2007).Out of the species occurring in Indian Himalayan Region (IHR), two (P.verticillatum (Linn.)All., and P. cirrhifolium (Wall.)Royle) are imperative ingredients of Asthaverga.
P. verticillatum (Linn.)All.syn.C. verticillata Linn., is known as whorled Solomon's seal in English and locally known as mitha dudhia (Nautiyal and Nautiyal, 2004) and Kantula (Gaur, 1999).The species is recognized as 'mahameda' in Ayurveda and in Sanskrit as Tridanti, Devamani and Vasuchhidra.It is an erect tall herb, 60 to 120 cm high.Leaves are whorled, sessile, 10 to 20 cm long, linear or lanceolate, acute or rarely tip carcinate, glaucous beneath, occasionally ciliolate on margins and veins.Flowers are white, pinkish white or pale green, in whorled racemes, rarely lilac.The flowering and fruiting takes place in the month of June to October.This species is found in the temperate Himalayas at altitudes of 1800 to 3900 m (Plate 1).P. cirrhifolium (Wall.)Royle syn.C. cirrhifolia Wall is another member of Asthaverga recognized as King's Solomon's seal in English, locally as Khakan (Gaur, 1999), 'meda' in Ayurveda, Dhara, Manichhidra and Svalpaparni in Sanskrit (Plate 2).It is also a tall erect, perennial herb, 60 to 120 cm high with whorled (3 to 6) sessile, linear leaves having tendril like tips.Flowers are white, green purplish or pink on short stocks and the fruits are round blue-black berry, when ripen found in the temperate Himalayas at the altitudes of 1200 to 4200 m.Rhizomes are thick and fleshy.

Selection, sampling and population estimation
P. verticillatum (Linn.)All. and P. cirrhifolium (Wall.)Royle, which have high trade and conservation value, were selected for the present study (Plate 1).The population assessment of this species was carried out from May, 2010 to May, 2012, during the peak season of flowering for the study of plant diversity and specimen collection from all the altitudinal zones.The study area was surveyed extensively and 10 populations (5 in Kumaun region and 5 in Garhwal region) mentioned in Table 1 were identified for comparative assessment of the species.Various habitats were
For the phytosociological study in every study sites, herbaceous species was studied by laying 30 quadrats of 1 m × 1 m (1 sq m) size randomly, tree species and shrub species were studied by laying 30 quadrats of 10 m × 10 m (100 sq m) size at different altitudinal range (Misra, 1968).The size and the number of quadrats were determined by the species curve (Mishra, 1968) and the running means methods (Kershaw, 1973).In each quadrat, trees were recorded with > 31.5 cm cbh (circumference at breast height that is, 1.37 m above the ground) individually measured.Individuals within the cbh range of 10.5 to 31.4 cm were considered as shrubs + saplings and individuals < 10.5 cm cbh were considered as herbs + seedlings.Individuals of all species were counted in each quadrat.To determine status of the species, mean values of each quantitative parameter of three stands of transect were considered for further interpretation.During the population analysis, some sites where individuals of representative species were very few (1 to 5) are not considered as stands.However, these individuals were also marked and counted as area of occurrence and for the demographic observations for threat category assessment.
The threat category of P. verticillatum (Linn.)All. and P. cirrhifolium (Wall.)Royle) were identified using six attributes (that is, habitat preference, distribution range, population size, use pattern, extraction trend, native and endemic species) and following Samant et al. (1998) and Ved et al. (2003) (Table 2).

Quantitative analysis
The important quantitative analysis such as density, frequency and abundance of tree species, shrubs and herbs species were determined as per Curtis and McIntosh (1950).Pattern of the species was analyzed on the basis of abundance to frequency (A/F) ratio.Value of A/F < 0.025 was categorized regular, between 0.026 to 0.050 random and > 0.050 contiguous type of distribution (Kershaw, 1973).Similarly, relative values of frequency, density and dominance and importance value index (IVI), were calculated following the methods of Curtis (1959).IVI was calculated through the sum of relative frequency, relative density and relative dominance.

Statistical analysis
To calculate the significant and non-significant variations among various phytosociological features (frequency, density, abundance

Ethno-botanical assessment
To access the ethno-medicinal uses of the plants, personnel interview and bilateral discussion were carried out in the premises of healers/informers.After the documentation of folk claims, validation of the information was also done through cross checking with the help of codified texts of Ayurveda.
In Kumaun, at site P3 the species had lowest frequency (50), with the density 1.13 plants/m 2 and IVI of 8.99.While in Garhwal, at site P9 the species is showed lowest frequency (43.33), with the density of 2.27 plants/m 2 and IVI = 15.69 (Tables 5 and  6).

Structural pattern of P. cirrhifolium Royle
In Kumaun, at site P4 the species had the lowest frequency (50), with a density of 0.87 plants/m 2 and IVI of 8.99.While in Garhwal, at site P7 the species showed lowest frequency (53.33) with the density of 1.70 plants/m 2 and IVI of 15.69 (Tables 7 and 8).

Threat categorization
An area specific threat categorization is very important for short or long term management planning.In the present study, the threat categorization of the species was done through the six parameters (that is, habitat preference, distribution range, population size, use pattern, extraction trend, native and endemic species).Both the species P. verticillatum (Linn.)All. and P. cirrhifolium Royle are found vulnerable in the study area on the basis of six parameters stated earlier.This indicates that these species are facing threats due to high anthropogenic pressure, overexploitation, habitat destruction and fragmentation.

Ethno-botanical uses
P. verticillatum (Linn.)All. and P. cirrhifolium Royle are the main ingredients of Astaverga (an Ayurvedic formulation).As per Ayurveda (Sharma et al., 1979), the main property of these two plants is to treat the vata, pitta, general weakness, aphrodisiac etc.During the field survey, some ethno-medicinal uses of P. verticillatum (Linn.)All. and P. cirrhifolium Royle were also accessed, which are more or less same for both plants.
1. Bulbs of P. verticillatum (Linn.)All. are dried, powdered and taken after mixing with honey to cure tuberculosis.2. Powder of bulbs is taken with milk to cure general debility, and acts as tonic.
3. Powder of bulbs is taken twice daily with water to cure leucorrhoea.

DISCUSSION
Both the species of Polygonatum are used variously by pharmaceutical companies, due to which the population in natural habitat is diminishing day by day at alarming stage.The present study is the population assessment of the species that is, P. verticillatum (Linn.)All. and P. cirrhifolium Royle following the parameters given by the Mishra (1968), to define the status of the plant in the study area and to access the ethno-medicinal uses of the plant.The study reveals that both the species are vulnerable in the study area and facing the various kind of threats such as: over exploitation, unscientific harvesting and less awareness about the properties of the species.There are some strategies for the conservation of these species for future prospects, such as: 1.A thorough work on threatened medicinal plants should be carried out and detailed information about their natural habitat, climate, soil, adaptability, growing season, flowering time, seed setting stage, etc., should be generated.Accordingly, conservation measures should be developed.2. Ban on threatened medicinal plants should be strictly materialized, since due to improper attention of administration one can easily see banned medicinal plants in the market.3. Collection of folklore information on medicinal plants from tribal and elderly people and its proper documentation are very important, otherwise this valuable information will vanish with them and coming generation will be deprived of it.

Table 1 .
Region-wise selected study sites.

Table 2 .
Threat assessment of the medicinal plant diversity.

Table 3 .
Study sites with dominant species at Kumaun.