DIVERSITY STATUS AND MEDICINAL PLANT SPECIES PRESENT IN THE NATURAL VEGETATION OF KONGUNADU ARTS AND SCIENCE COLLEGE CAMPUS, COIMBATORE

The present study is aimed to identify the diversity status and medicinal plant species present in natural vegetation of Kongunadu Arts and Science College Campus, Coimbatore. The study was conducted during the period between October, 2015 and February, 2016 through exploration was made periodically at weekly intervals in all vegetation areas of Kongunadu Arts and Science College, Coimbatore to enlist the species. A total of 50 plant species belongs to 47 genera which are included in 29 families are present in the campus. The total number of species in herbs is higher (27) followed by the trees and climbers with 8 species, shrubs with 4 species in the college campus. The documentation of this floristic list along with the economic uses of plants may be considered as a baseline data for future management and perspective of plant species diversity.


INTRODUCTION
Institutional premises in the past few decades are becoming most conductive habitats for rich variety of wiled plant species as the management authorities are giving considerable attention to plant conservation. Despite the severe exploitation on wild bioresources in natural ecosystem, the premises of educational institutions generally have considerable green cover contributed by many number of plant species of different lifeforms due to the habitat protection offered by the authorities. The communities being maintained in the educational institutions are economically efficient, ecologically sound and biologically sustainable systems. Campus plant communities have attained characteristics which can be useful for making interesting models for research and design of sustainable ecosystems. Some of the characteristics include efficient nutrient cycling, high biodiversity, low use of external inputs and soil conservation potential (1). The nature and organization of plant communities and ecological features of constituent species are generally vary from place to place according to the local physical environment (2). In biodiversity point of view, the first step for effective conservation of species is the documentation of all available species followed by preparing databases for every possible local areas, which can enable to prepare regional and national biodiversity map. Categorization of documented species into various groups according to their economic uses is another important requisite to offer species specific conservation strategy.
Kongunadu Arts and Science College, Coimbatore is a most popular educational institution in Tamil Nadu, India that attained top rank in NACC reaccreditation. College management authorities and staff and students forums give more attention for establishing indoor gardens and also maintaining the natural plant communities in a well manner inside the campus. Around seven hectares of habitat with natural plant communities encompassed by different plant species are available in Kongunadu Arts and Science College, Coimbatore. However, documentation of flora for that habitat with economic uses is not completed so far. Therefore, the present study was aimed at to prepare a floristic list along with the medicinal and other economical uses of plants in Kongunadu Arts and Science College with particular reference to wild species. The data obtained can be useful to know the changes in species composition, community dynamics and level of conservation as influenced by the habitat protection in future.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
During the period between October, 2015 and February, 2016 through exploration was made periodically at weekly intervals in all vegetation areas of Kongunadu Arts and Science College, Coimbatore to enlist the species. Identification of plant species was made on the basis of guidelines and keys provided by Gamble (3). Herbarium specimens were collected and deposited in the Department of Botany, Kongunadu Arts and Science College, Coimbatore. Medicinal and other economic uses of the plant species were known through literature survey and information from local traditional healers by adequate interagations. The level of anthropologenic disturbances caused to the communities of the college campus was mentioned regularly.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The vegetation of college campus is heterogenous composed by various types of lifeforms such as trees, shrubs, herbs, climbers, creepers, parasites, etc. As the climatic condition is semi-arid, the plants are mostly mesophytic in the college campus. Generally, the herbs are distributed in patches and also all along the length of the hedges. The tree species such as Delonix regia, Albizia amara, Azadirachta indica, Morinda tinctoria, Peltophorum ferrugineum, Pongamia pinnata, Samanea saman and Spathodea campanulata are raised by college management and they are nearly 35 years old in age.
A total of 50 plant species belongs to 47 genera which are included in 29 families are present in the campus ( Tiliaceae, Verbenaceae and Zygophyllaceae contributed one species each to the community is also varying widely (Fig. 1). The total number of species in herbs is higher (27) followed by the trees and climbers with 8 species, shrubs with four species in the college campus.
In the floristic list of college campus, interestingly all the 50 species (100%) recognized as medicinally important (Table 1). This may be explained due to the existence of semi-arid climatic condition inside the campus, a favourable environment for many constituent plant species (4,5). It has been observed further that the medicinal uses of the plants in the campus are diverse and multifaceted (   The following species such as Acalypha indica used to treat snake bite, Albizia amara used to treat leucoderma and erysipelas, Blumea oblique used as insect repellent, Boerhavia diffusa used for body cooling and to treat bowels complaint, Cardiospermum halicacabum is used to treat arthritis and constipation, Clitoria ternatea used for antimicrobial and anti-analgesic, Commelina benghalensis used to treat psychosis and epilepsy, Evolvulus alsinoides used to treat nervous problem, Millingtonia hortensis used to cure sinusitis and as tonic, Mukia maderaspatana used to treat toothache, Prosopis cineraria is used to treat scorpion bite, Vernonia cinerea used to cure eczema, ring worm and elephantiasis diseases and Waltheria indica used to treat infertility. The plant parts used for treating the ailments also varying according to the types of ailments (Fig. 2). Among them leaf part for the higher number of (32%) plant species followed by whole plants (19%), root (18%), flower (11%), seed (6%), fruit (5%), stem and bark (4% each) and tuber (1%). It is explained that leaf is the primary site of photosynthesis and produce many secondary metabolites, in addition to reserves like carbohydrates which attributes the higher number of species for leaf as medicinal part (8)(9)(10) This may be explained due to the various phytochemicals and nutraceuticals in these species (11)(12)(13)(14). The rich diversity of plant species in the college campus may be due to the presence of different microclimatic sites like open habitats, shaded habitats by broad tree canopy coverage, slightly ever wet places, hedges with the habitat of more soil organic matter etc in the common macroclimate of semi-arid condition. In addition, very little or no disturbance by biotic factor including man is being caused to the vegetation may also be a possible factor for this high species richness in the college campus.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the observation that the campus of Kongunadu Arts and Science College, Coimbatore is a habitat for various plant species of different taxonomic categories. Furthermore, it is a place of vegetation that contains many species with different medicinal uses. Hence, the campus may be considered as a potential site for many medicinal species sue to its divers microclimatic conditions. In addition to the establishment of many indoor plants, the perpetuation of natural vegetation with high species richness adds still more significance to the biodiversity conservation. Documentation of this floristic list along with the economic uses of plants may be considered as a baseline data for future management and perspective of plant species diversity.