ABSTRACT
The plant genus Amorphophallus belongs to the family Araceae, subfamily Aroideae, and it is estimated that it has more than 200 species (Hetterscheid et al., 2012). This genus is monocotyledonous and is distributed from tropical Africa throughout subtropical and tropical Asia into the tropical western pacific and northeastern Australia (Hetterscheid and Ittenbach, 1996). Among all the species of this genus about 70% have been found in Southeast Asia (Boyce and Croat, 2011). The remarkable feature of this genus is its morphology (see Figure 2.1) characterized by a solitary leaf rising from the tuber, consisting of a vertical petiole and a horizontal leaf-blade (Hetterscheid and Ittenbach, 1996; Boyce et al., 2012; for further details see Section 2.2). Schematic representation of the morphology of <italic>Amorphophallus</italic> sp. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429429927/711a47e9-6126-402c-b26d-00ae647fe3c2/content/fig2_1_B.tif"/> (Adapted from Liu, P.Y., Konjac, China Agriculture Press, Beijing, China, 2004; Chua, M., An investigation of the biology and chemistry of the Chinese medicinal plant, Amorphophallus konjac, PhD thesis, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK, 2011.)
