ABSTRACT
Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Division, Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Pacha, Palode, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India-695 562.
* Corresponding author: peringattulli@yahoo.co.uk
Since the pre-historic times plants are universally recognized as a vital part of the planet’s biological diversity and an essential natural resource having immeasurable ecological, biological, therapeutic, social, cultural, economic, spiritual and aesthetic signifi cance. But in pursuit of benefi ts, we have somewhere, through the course of time, overlooked the need to judiciously use and safeguard our fathomless treasure. Extinction and decline in plant diversity have been attributed to a range of factors including population growth, high rates of habitat modification, deforestation, over-exploitation, spread of invasive alien species, pollution and climate change (Anonymous 2009). The distribution of bioresources on planet Earth is not uniform. The tropics that harbour the vast majority of the world’s biota are thought to behold the key to the future. In 1988, ecologist Norman Myers introduced the term ‘biodiversity hotspots’ to distinguish a global set of high-priority terrestrial ecoregions for conservation (Myers 1988). ‘Biodiversity hotspots’ are areas where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat and where wise conservation investments could help minimize future extinctions (Myers et al. 2000, Myers 1988). As many as 44% of all species of vascular plants and 35% of all species in four vertebrate groups are confi ned to the world’s 27 hotspots comprising only 1.4% of the land surface of the earth (Myers et al. 2000).
