Abstract:
A combination of taxonomical analysis, cytogenetical method and molecular technique had
done for authentic characterization of medicinally important five Phyllanthus L. species viz.
P. acidus (L.) Skeels, P. emblica L. (small fruit form), P. emblica L. (large fruit form), P. niruri
L., P. reticulatus Poir. and P. urinaria L. They were analyzed with several taxonomical
parameters such as branching pattern, morphology of bark, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds,
flowering and fruiting time. Interphase nuclei and prophase chromosomes of these species
showed notable variation and displayed the presence and distribution of both constitutive
and facultative heterochromatin. Phyllanthus species, as studied here, showed variation in
somatic chromosome counts such as 2n=2x=26 in P. acidus, P. niruri and P. reticulatus,
2n=6x=48 in P. urinaria and 2n=10x=100 in P. emblica (both small and large fruit forms),
represented with multi-basic chromosome number. The karyomorphology of these
Phyllanthus species showed that these species were more or less primitive in nature of
which P. acidus, P. niruri and P. reticulatus were comparatively advanced than the others in
evolutionary point of view. Formation of bivalent in addition with several multivalent at
diakinesis and metaphase-I of P. emblica (both forms) indicated that this species has the
possibility of being auto-allopolyploid or segmental-allopolyploid that are going through
the process of diplodization. These five Phyllanthus species showed distinctiveness in their
number, position, distribution and the percentage of GC- and AT-rich repetitive segments
that allowed to analyze the reshuffled banded regions with the help of CMA and DAPIbanding
method. RAPD analysis of five Phyllanthus spp. displayed that P. emblica and P.
reticulatus were closely related whereas P. acidus and P. emblica were genetically distantly
related. The two forms (small and large fruit forms) of P. emblica showed similarity in most
important taxonomic parameters and somatic chromosome numbers and dissimilarity in
some morphological characters.
