A preliminary study of leaf morphology and flow cytometry in the Vatica diospyroides Symington, endangered medicinal plant of Peninsular Thailand

Abstract

In modern drug discovery program, Vatica diospyroides Symington consisted of chemical constituents that were found as anticancer in human. V. diospyroides was described as endangered species, and its tree is puzzled by means of leaf forms. Investigating the unique features was very important to support the program. To classify these features, leaf traits and C-DNA values were investigated. Leaf characters of twenty-eight trees of V. diospyroides, including herbarium specimens, were recorded using leaf morphometric study and subsequent analysis by cluster. The results revealed that lamina length, leaflet length and leaflet width were found to be significantly different characters. After being analyzed by cluster, the specimens were evaluated into: 1) small size (SS) and 2) large size (LS) forms using three correlated variables namely lamina length, leaflet length/width and petiole length. The 2C-DNA contents were estimated by using flow cytometric study in each form of seedlings. The results showed that 2C-DNA contents of SS and LS seedlings were 1.83 ± 0.27 and 2.21 ± 0.31 pg; consequently, one haploid genomes (1C-value) were therefore 895 and 1080 Mbp, respectively. It is thus accepted that leaf morphometric and flow cytometric studies were able to distinct V. diospyroides into two specific individuals. It is important to carry out classifications using DNA markers and phytochemical properties in further experiment. Key words: 2C-DNA content, Chan Ka Pho, flow cytometry, genome size, leaf morphology,Vatica diospyroides.