Gingers of Manipur: diversity and potentials as bioresources

摘要

The gingers are well-known for their medicinal and economic significance and occur chiefly in the tropical regions of the world mainly in the Indo-Malaysian area of Asia. From Manipur in northeast India, 33 species under 9 genera have been collected from different parts of the State. Collected specimens were planted in the Experimental Field of the Department of Life Sciences, Manipur University. The morphological details of the various species were worked out. The characteristic features of the specimen, their traditional uses, anti-oxidant compounds present and biological activities are described. The identified genera are Alpinia (3 spp.), Amomum (5 spp.), Boesenbergia (1 sp.), Curcuma (10 spp.), Elettaria (1 sp.), Hedychium (7 spp. and 1 variety), Kaempferia (2 spp.), Roscoea (1 sp.) and Zingiber (3 spp.). Of these, 26 species have been used variously as food (15), traditional medicine (21) and ornamental plants (9) by the ethnic people in their culture. Ten species have been identified to possess various bioactive molecules.