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The family Solanaceae is immensely important because it has many species with food and medicinal values. There are nine major Solanaceous spp. Namely S. Melongena L. (Wambatu and Elabatu), S. virginianum L. (Katuwelbatu), S. torvum Sw. (Thibbatu), S. violaceum Ortega (Thiththathibbatu), S. trilobatum L. (Welthibbatu), S. hispidum Pers. (Gonabatu), S. pubescens Willd. (Walthibbatu), S. nigrum sensu Trimen (Small Kalukenweriya) and Datura stramonium L. (Sudu aththana) collected from Uva Province, Sri Lanka, a prominent area of growing these species. Currently these species are underutilized in spite of their medicinal importance. No detailed morphogenetic and medicinal level characterization of these species has been reported to promote their economic use. Therefore, the present study was conducted to assess the morphogenetic diversity and the antibacterial activity of these Solanaceous spp. The plant height, canopy width and leaf and fruit morphology were highly variable among these species. DNA barcoding using locus matK revealed a total of eight haplotypes. The polymorphism in matK locus is not diverse enough to set the species limit of the genotypes within S. melongena and to distinguish Thiththathibbatu from Walthibbatu. The antibacterial activity assay using ethanol extracts of roots demonstrated that all these species have inhibitory activity against Gram positive Staphylococcus aureus (NCTC4838) and Gram negative Escherichia coli (JM109). |
