November 2022
Industrial Crops and Products
Abstract

Centella asiatica (L.) is used in the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, gastro-intestinal problems, and wound healing in the Ayurveda system of medicine. The species is well-known for its rich triterpenoid centellosides constituents, which are extensively used in the preparation of various pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. Identification of elite chemotypes based on bioactive marker contents, characterizing their climatic niches, and delineating the potential areas of cultivation for bioactive compound-based elite germplasms, can help large-scale commercial cultivation of C. asiatica with targeted bioactive compounds. We quantified four bioactive compounds i.e., madecassoside, asiaticoside, madecassic acid, and asiatic acid in 109 samples of C. asiatica collected from different phyto-geographical regions of India using HPTLC. Ecological niche modeling (ENM) was used to identify the major climatic factors associated with high metabolite content, and also predict the potential areas of cultivation where the contents are expected to be highest for each bio-marker based elite chemotypes. The contents of asiatic acid, madecassic acid, asiaticoside and madecassoside varied between 0.02–3.2 %, 0.02–3.06 %, 0.018–4.3 %, and 0.01–4.8 %, respectively. Several samples from Western Ghats and Deccan Plateau were identified as elite chemotypes with high centelloside contents. The individual metabolite-specific ENM revealed that temperature annual range, annual precipitation, precipitation of wettest month, precipitation seasonality, and precipitation of coldest quarter were the dominant climatic factors associated with high contents of centellosides. Areas with high climatic suitability for production of the selected four metabolites were restricted to the Western Ghats, Northeast India, Eastern Himalaya, and Western Himalaya. Such areas identified through ENM should be suitable for commercial cultivation of chemotypes with specific metabolite contents. The protocol established in this study would help sustainable availability of metabolite-specific Quality Raw Material (QRM) and Quality Planting Materials (QPM) for the industry in respect of other medicinal plants as well.

2022 Annual Fund Sponsors: