Being an economically important species, commercial cultivation of Terminalia chebula could be promoted ex-situ as a conservation strategy. Information on the variability in the fruits would enable deployment of superior material. The principal objective of the present investigation was to quantify the variations in morphological and phytochemical parameters of the fruits and quantifying the degree of association between different quantitative characters. Fifteen accessions from natural populations from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were evaluated for seven morphological characters and four phytochemical parameters of the fruits. Substantial variation was observed in morphology and phytochemicals within the species. The morphological traits had low co-efficient of variation while the phytochemicals showed high co-efficient of variation. The physical features of the fruits correlated with the phytochemicals and results suggesting that elliptic fruits with length > 3 cm could be selected for higher phytochemical content. Within tree variation was very high for all the traits, suggesting that individual selection within natural population will be effective for further domestication and improvement of this medicinally important species. The study revealed the need for including fruits traits also as a selection criterion while identifying plus trees for a breeding programme of T. chebula.
Non-timber forest products (NTFP) are sources of food, fodder, medicines, gums, resins and construction material. They are traded commodities in local, regional, national and international markets. They also play an important role in the daily lives and well being of the tribal population.
Species of Terminalia are of commercial value due to their high quality timber and NTFP use as bark and fruits which are a source of commercial tannin. The fruits of Terminalia chebula Retz. commonly known as chebulic myrobalan or myrobalan are rich in tannin and are used on a large scale in India in the leather industry. T. chebula is used in the production of sole leather. In the first three months of 2016 (Jan-Mar), India exported 465,809 kg of chebulic myrobalan generating a revenue of 20,738,160 INR (Brinckmann, 2016).
Geographical and environmental conditions play a vital role in the growth and chemical constituency of a species. Variations are bound to be seen in the species, grown in different areas, according to the availability of nutrients, sunlight etc. It is noticed that trees grow and mature well and have more of active principles when grown naturally. This is very important when choosing an area for large scale plantation of medicinally and economically important plant species.
(Source: This is an abstract taken from the 'My forest' Journal; March - June 2017. The authors are Asma S. Banu, Rekha R. Warrier, Geeta Joshi and A.N. Arunkumar. You can read the entire article at aranya.gov.in)
