Conservation drivers and tissue culture potential for active substance induction of local detergent plants

Abstract

Local detergent plants are widely used in cleansing purposes. The main bioactive substance in this group of plants is saponins that has the ability to produced foam and reduce surface tension. In Thailand, detergent plants have been used for a long time. However, the number of individual and biodiversity, as well as the traditional knowledge of plant utilisation have been declined. It is therefore necessary to study, collect and find ways to conserve this group of plants. Therefore, this research studied the driving factors towards the conservation of local detergent plants. The drivers are divided into social driver, chemical properties as a detergent and ecological drivers. The study of social driver, I studied the existing knowledge of detergent plant utilisation reported in Northern Thailand. The forest dependent community was chosen as they maintained current knowledge of plant utilization by using semi-structure questionnaires. Eight local plants were also collected from the comunities and analysed for bioactive compositions. The results showed that the knowledge of detergent plant utilisation was passed down to generations. The most known as detergent plants were Sapindus rarak and Litsea glutinosa with the highest use value (UV ~0.5). All of samples contained saponins compound. Principle Component Analysis (PCA) revealed the relationship between type and score of bioactive compounds. The utilization definition reported that definition in cleansing purposes should be mentioned to physical cleansing and should not include “spiritual cleansing”. In studying of the functionality and sustainble production of bioactive compound using tissue culture found that the extracts from Acacia concinna, Sapindus rarak and Litsea glutinosa had significant difference in detergent ability and saponin contents. Crude extracts of L. glutinosa had 48.21% detergent ability and contained saponins 0.52 mg DE/g extract. Callus induction has the highest induction rate in MS media contained 2.0 mg/L of IAA and these callus could produce bioactive compounds with constituents similar to the saponins. The ecological driver were also studied to serve as a way to conserve plants in their habitat. Initially found that Litsea trees can grow in the deciduous forest of Huai Hong Krai area. However, the natural area has a small number of population. From 56 permanent plots, only 6 trees from 6 plots were found. All study results can be concluded that detergent plants are valuable, potent, and need conservation. In a way to promote conservation, this can be done by educating people in the area on the use of plants, product development and the importance of the local natural resources. In addition to being able to conserve resources, it can also improve the community's economy.