Medicinal Plants - International Journal of Phytomedicines and Related Industries

Andrographis paniculata (Burm.f.) Wall. ex Nees (family-Acanthaceae) popularly known as Kalmegh (Hindi), is an important medicinal herb used in different ayurvedic formulations in India. A total of 155 accessions have so far been collected by National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) mainly from parts of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. Among these, forty four accessions were grown for characterization, evaluation and identification of trait-specific germplasm using nine important quantitative traits viz. plant height, number of primary and secondary branches, leaf length, leaf width, herbage yield and andrographolide content. Among the traits studied, the highest variability was observed for herbage yield on fresh weight basis (CV=16.95%) followed by herbage yield on dry weight basis (CV=15.98%) and andrographolide content (CV=13.34%). The promising accessions identified were IC471919 for herbage yield (fresh weight basis) collected from Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) and IC342138, IC471895 with high andrographolide content from Amarkantak (Madhya Pradesh). Passport data of collected germplasm were used for geo-referencing, diversity distribution and grid mapping along with other collateral data. DIVA-GIS-based grid mapping technique was used to know the diversity distribution pattern in promising accessions identified for different traits. In addition, priority areas identified for future collection have also been discussed in the present communication.