Elite genotypes of Bacopa monnieri, with high contents of Bacoside A and Bacopaside I, from southern Western Ghats in India

Bacopa monnieri (Brahmi) is a high value herbaceous medicinal species used for improving intellect and memory. In India, high demand of B. monnieri for the manufacture of herbal extracts and medicines prompts its collection in huge quantities from wild habitats, leading to the extinction of its genotypes. Wild accessions of B. monnieri show high variability in the levels of bioactive principles, and only few of them yield 'elite' contents. The objective of the present study is search for elite genotypes of B. monnieri in its wild germplasm across the south Indian State of Kerala. A precise HPTLC-densitometric method was adopted for simultaneous quantification of the bioactive saponins, Bacoside A and Bacopaside I, in sixty accessions of B. monnieri originally collected from various locations in Kerala and grown under identical ecological conditions in a Field Gene Bank/Experimental Plot for four generations. These sixty B. monnieri accessions showed high variability in the contents of bioactive compounds, and three of them showed elite contents (>5.5%) of (Bacoside A + Bacopaside I), viz, 6.58, 6.55 and 5.56%. Total content of both bioactive constituents (Bacoside A + Bacopaside I) ranged from 2.06 to 6.58%. Bacoside A and Bacopaside I contents in these sixty accessions varied from 1.44 to 5.40% and 0.29 to 1.36%, respectively. The average content of (Bacoside A + Bacopaside I) in these sixty accessions of B. monnieri is 3.70 +/- 0.72%. Elite genotypes of B. monnieri discovered in this study are potential entities for cultivation and genetic improvement, which could ultimately meet its commercial requirements. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.