Hue and cry for Fritillaria cirrhosa D.Don, a threatened medicinal plant in the Western Himalaya

The unique Himalayan ecosystems are repositories to the wild populations of diverse flora and fauna. The high value medicinal and aromatic plant species (MAPs) are an example of the same. Since time immemorial, these MAPs have been traditionally used by the local inhabitants and have eventually developed a high market value all over the world. Increasing market demand engenders over-extraction of species, unsustainable collection further catalyses decline in wild populations. The current communication raises high conservation concern on the rapid population decline of Fritillaria cirrhosa D.Don in the Western Himalaya. Harvested and traded with a new trade name i.e., ‘Jangli lehsun’ probably to disguise common Allium species, the species is facing tremendous decline in wild populations due to its illegal harvesting and trade in Himachal Pradesh. Further, F. cirrhosa faces threat due to unorganized, over-extraction, unsustainable and premature harvesting of the bulbs, coupled with illegal hidden markets functioning parallelly. Considering that this valuable species is under multiple threats being a medicinally important plant, priority should be given for its conservation through in-situ such as identification of medicinal plant conservation areas and ex-situ methods for its propagation and multiplication. Further, to ensure the long-term conservation of Fritillaria cirrhosa, prioritized conservation strategies such as strengthening of the Biodiversity Management Committees, capacity building through awareness programs for the key stakeholders and sustainable harvesting would be the practical solution.

Hue and Cry for Fritillaria Cirrhosa D.Don, A Threatened Medicinal Plant in the Western Himalaya

The unique Himalayan ecosystems have given rise to highly adapted organisms and are repositories to the wild populations of diverse flora and fauna. The high value medicinal and aromatic plant species are an example of the same. Since time immemorial, these plants have been traditionally used by the local inhabitants and have eventually developed a high market value all over the world. Increasing market demand engenders over-extraction of species, unsustainable collection further catalyses decline in wild populations. The current communication raises high conservation concern on the rapid population decline of Fritillaria cirrhosa D.Don in the Western Himalaya. Harvested and traded with a new trade name i.e., ‘Jangli lehsun’ probably to disguise common Allium species, the species is facing tremendous decline in wild populations due to its illegal harvesting and trade in Himachal Pradesh. Further, Fritillaria cirrhosa faces threat due to unorganized, over-extraction or unsustainable and premature harvesting of the bulbs, coupled with illegal and hidden markets functioning parallelly. To ensure the long-term conservation of Fritillaria cirrhosa, prioritised conservation strategies such as strengthening of the Biodiversity Management Committees, in-situ conservation through identification of medicinal plant conservation areas, capacity building through awareness programs for the key stakeholders and sustainable harvesting would be the practical solution.

Extract of bulbus of Fritillaria cirrhosa induces spindle multipolarity in human-derived colonic epithelial NCM460 cells through promoting centrosome fragmentation

Bulbus of Fritillaria cirrhosa D. Don (BFC), an outstanding antitussive and expectorant herbal drug used in China and many other countries, has potential but less understood genotoxicity. Previously, we have reported that aqueous extract of BFC compromised the spindle assembly checkpoint and cytokinesis in NCM460 cells. Here, we found that one remarkable observation in BFC-treated NCM460 cells was multipolar mitosis, a trait classically compromises the fidelity of chromosome segregation. More detailed investigation revealed that BFC induced spindle multipolarity in metaphases and ana-telophases in a dose- and time-dependent manner, suggesting BFC-induced multipolar spindle conformation was not transient. The frequency of multipolar metaphase correlated well to that of multipolar ana-telophases, indicating that BFC-induced multipolar metaphases often persisted through anaphase. Unexpectedly, BFC blocked the proliferation of binucleated cells, suggesting spindle multipolarity was not downstream of BFC-induced cytokinesis failure. Exposure of BFC to early mitotic cells, rather than S/G2 cells, contributed greatly to spindle multipolarity, indicating BFC might disrupt centrosome integrity rather than induce centrosome overduplication. The immunofluorescence results showed that the centrosomes were severely fragmented by a short-term treatment of BFC and the extent of centrosome fragmentation in early mitotic cells was larger than this in S/G2 cells. Consistently, several genes (e.g., p53, Rb Centrin-2, Plk-4, Plk-1 and Aurora-A) involved in regulating centrosome integrity were significantly deregulated by BFC. Together, our results suggest that BFC causes multipolar spindles primarily by inducing centrosome fragmentation. Coupling these results to our previous observations, we recommend the risk/benefit ratio should be considered in practical use of BFC.