Morphological characterisation of ethnomedicinally important Kaempferia L. (Zingiberaceae) and its present distribution status in Manipur, North-East India

Abstract

Kaempferia L., a member of the Zingiberaceae family, is one of the most potent medicinal plants in India and requires proper attention. Our efforts to collect various species of Kaempferia in their natural habitat led to the collection of 30 accessions, including K. galanga, K. marginata, K. parviflora, K. rotunda, and five other unidentified Kaempferia species that are likely natural hybrids with no distinguishing features. It has been found that rhizomes are the most usable portion of the plant, and people in this region use them the most for medical purposes. The present study aimed to describe and evaluate the morphological structures of the plant, incorporating 52 phenotypic descriptors. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis were employed to explore diversity. The majority of the traits tested were highly variable. The elevation range (28704.02%) and plant height (at 648.03 %) had the largest coefficients of variation (CV %), whereas anther length (0.06 %) and corolla shape (0.19 %) had the lowest. Rhizome size has a high positive correlation with the odour of the aerial plant parts, growing, dormant, new shoots sprouting, and flowering seasons. However, it shows negative correlations with elevation, lifespan of the flower, and number of leaves. Principal component analysis (PCA), revealed that the first five components accounted for 89.90 % of the variability, and hierarchical grouping based on accession dissimilarity revealed two significant groupings. It was found that wild K. species populations were genetically diverse, suggesting that this diversity can be used for agronomic and horticultural purposes to isolate and characterise numerous important, well-adapted genotypes with the potential to significantly increase yields. Therefore, it is crucial to conserve the genetic material that is currently available.