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Botanists have described Ophiorrhiza assamensis, a new flowering plant found in a moist, shaded habitat near Guwahati in Assam's Kamrup Metropolitan district.
It belongs to the genus Ophiorrhiza in the family Rubiaceae — the coffee family.
The genus is a natural source of camptothecin, the alkaloid behind several anti-cancer drugs.
Known only from one highly localised population, it has been provisionally assessed as Data Deficient under IUCN criteria.
Camptothecin is a plant alkaloid that inhibits topoisomerase I, the enzyme a dividing cell needs to unwind its DNA. It was first isolated from the Chinese tree Camptotheca acuminata, and the anti-cancer drugs topotecan and irinotecan are its derivatives.
Simple Analogy: It jams the enzyme that untangles DNA, so dividing cells stall.
India's apex plant taxonomy body, established on 13 February 1890, headquartered in Kolkata under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; it publishes 'Plant Discoveries' annually.
Added 353 taxa to India's floral inventory, of which 221 were new to science; Arunachal Pradesh recorded the highest number.
The coffee family — a reminder that an economically vital crop and an obscure forest herb can share a family, which is exactly how bioprospecting leads arise.
GS Paper 3 > Environment and Biodiversity > Species discovery, conservation status and bioprospecting
General Awareness > Environment in the news
An IUCN category indicating that information is inadequate to assess a species' extinction risk — not a statement that it is safe.
A topoisomerase I-inhibiting plant alkaloid from which the anti-cancer drugs topotecan and irinotecan are derived.
Naturally restricted to a particular geographical area and found nowhere else.