Research Projects

The Kashmir Himalaya is home to a rich biodiversity of plant species, with about 50% of the plant species described in British pharmacopeia. Rhubarb (Rheum Linn) is the oldest and best known Indian medicinal plant, used extensively in Ayurvedic, Homeopathic, and other medical systems without adverse effects. Genus Rheum has about 60 extant species, with five species endemic in the NW Himalayas spanning the UT of Jammu & Kashmir. However, due to overexploitation for herbal drug preparations and dwindling populations in natural habitats, some species of the taxa are threatened, including R. moorcroftianum. The genus Rheum has not been well explored from the NW Himalayas, and few reports relating to chemoprofiling, micro-propagation, cytological, and molecular studies are available. To conserve one of the medicinally important herbs from this genus, R. moorcroftianum, the authors propose to extend their work. They have reported the target species for the first time from Kashmir Himalaya, with sparse populations affected by deforestation, illegal extraction, and grazing. The proposal focuses on the in vitro establishment of an elite chemotype, which could be used for the production of synthetic seeds as a potential strategy to conserve the germplasm of this threatened species. The effective in vitro regeneration system for this medicinal herb would act as a prelude for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation studies and be a sustainable conservation measure. The successfully developed hairy root transformation system can further be used to enhance the production of bio-active phytoconstituents at the bioreactor scale for commercial purposes.