Phenetic Variation and Preliminary Phytochemical Screening of Piper Species in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The genus Piper has high commercial importance as it contains cultivated crops (black pepper and betel) and medicinal plants that are mostly used in traditional medicine. In Sri Lanka the genus Piper is represented by ten species including five wild species. It is necessary to examine their chemical composition and morphology as they have received little attention for utilizing their valuable traits for crop improvement. Piper nigrum L., P. betle L., P. longum L., P. chuvya (Miq.) C. DC., P. siriboa L., P. sylvestre Lam., P. zeylanicum Miq. P. walkeri Miq were subjected to morphological and phytochemical study using the specimens collected from natural habitats and from the cultivations. The air dried and powdered leaves were used for qualitative phytochemical screening. Qualitative phytochemical screening was carried out to identify the different chemical compounds in petroleum ether, chloroform, methanol and water. The study confirmed the presence of tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, glycosides, alkaloids and phenolic compounds. Anatomical studies were carried out by obtaining leaf epidermal peels and cross sections. Thirteen morphological and anatomical characters were subjected to cluster analysis using PAST software to infer their relationships. According to the phenogram (Single linkage, Euclidean distance) the taxa were divided into two main clusters; P. longum, P. zeylanicum, P. sylvestre, P. nigrum and P. walkeri formed one cluster whereas P. chuvya, P. betle, P. siriboa formed the other cluster sharing similarities. P. betle varieties were clustered together with P. siriboa and P. chuvya within the second cluster. Therefore, potential strengths in disease resistance of P. siriboa and P. chuvya can be used to develop improved varieties of betel to minimize economic losses due to epidemics in cultivations.