There are thousands of species in the plant kingdom but less than 200 are recognized as major crops.
There is even less when it comes to food crops hence food and nutritional insecurity are major concerns
in either developed or… More
There are thousands of species in the plant kingdom but less than 200 are recognized as major crops.
There is even less when it comes to food crops hence food and nutritional insecurity are major concerns
in either developed or developing countries. Unfortunately, manyspecies fall under the neglected and
underutilized species (NUS) category. Senna tora (L.) Roxb. is largely utilized in some countries especially
as part of their traditional medicine but is generally known as a weed in the Philippines and henceforth
technically, one of the NUS. This paper reports of findings of a series of investigations from December 2009
to November 2017 of S. tora in Bukidnon that documented its uses as a food, feed, and medicinal crop;
in situ and ex situ ecotypic diversity in the province based on its phenotypes; and potential resilience to
abiotic stresses at early vegetative stage. Use of leaves, seeds and roots as food, feed and medicine were
documented in 9 of 22 barangays. Percent crude protein (PCP) of seeds and leaves ranged from 12.50% to
20.48% and 16.94-39.02%, respectively. PCP of seeds (H’=0.93) and leaves (H’=0.79 and 0.81) were highly
diverse based on Standardized Shannon-Weaver Diversity Index. Plant height was estimated with moderate
(H’=0.67) to high (H’=0.88 and 0.93) diversity. However, all ecotypes were non-nodulating (H’=0.00). Finally,
most ecotypes were more sensitive to waterlogging than to drought for 16 days at seedling stage. Three of
10 ecotypes were sensitive only to waterlogging whereas, another three ecotypes were not sensitive to both
stresses. Less
Volume: 22 (2018) Issue 2, Page: 36,
Category: Natural Sciences
