Assam: Newly-discovered plant has medicinal value

Guwahati: In a globally-recognised achievement highlighting the rich flora of the Northeast, a botanist from Assam has discovered a new species of a climber plant whose fruit has rich medicinal value and can be developed into a horticulture crop. The new species named Smilax sailenii was discovered by Jatindra Sarma, a forest officer working in Karbi Anglong district, and his finding has been published in the current issue of Taiwania, a peer reviewed journal. The species belongs to the family Smilacaceae. The newly-discovered climber has been named after late Sailendra Prasad Borah, a professor of botany at Gauhati University, who passed away in 2012 due to cancer, saod Mr Sarma.

Though, Mr Sarma had spotted the new species in 2012 at Digboi reserve forest in Tinsukia district, it took some time to publish the discovery as researchers were trying to find out how it was different from the known variants of the plant. Mr Sarma told this newspaper, “The plant’s fruit are reddish and they turn black when ripe. They are sour-sweet when ripe. It can be developed into a horticultural crop, like grapes, if cultivated properly.” He said that tests conducted at a laboratory in Bangalore have confirmed the presence of starch and sugar in the fruit. Referring to his publication in the journal, Mr Sarma said, “The specimen are quite distinct from hitherto known species of Smilax, and so we started research on this new species.”

The species is known to be found only in the sub-tropical forests of Assam at an elevation of 300-400 metres.

Smilax sailenii, assessed as critically endangered, is a species known to have thrived in Digboi reserve forest and Borjan area of Borjan-Bherjan-Padumoni wildlife sanctuary in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia district.

The climber flowers from September to October, and it bears fruit from June to December.

The journal said, “During the botanical exploration trips in Upper Assam districts the authors collected a peculiar species belonging to the genus Smilax.”

“The specimen on which the present study is based have been preserved following standard herbarium techniques and the voucher specimens are deposited in the Herbarium of Botany Department, Gauhati University (GUBH),” it said.

Mr Sarma said, “Further study on chemical composition of this fruit may give new dimension to the medicinal value of this climber fruit.”

The journal in its publication said that Smilax L. is the type genus of family Smilacaceae, with c. 350 species (Takhtajan, 1997) or c. 200 species (Qi et al 2012).