Coptis

Coptis (goldthread or canker root) is a genus of between 10–15 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, native to Asia and North America.

Coptis
Coptis occidentalis flowers
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Subfamily: Coptidoideae
Genus: Coptis
Salisb.
Species

See text

Species
Selected species
  • Coptis aspleniifolia - fernleaf goldthread, spleenwort-leaf goldthread
  • Coptis chinensis - Chinese goldthread, Huang lian in Chinese (Chinese: 黃連; pinyin: huánglián)
  • Coptis deltoidea
  • Coptis trifolia (syn. Coptis trifolia)
  • Coptis japonica - Japanese goldthread, Riben huang lian in Chinese (Chinese: 日本黃連; pinyin: Rìběn huánglián)
  • Coptis laciniata - Oregon goldthread: California, Oregon, Washington State
  • Coptis occidentalis - Idaho goldthread: Idaho, Montana, Washington
  • Coptis omeiensis
  • Coptis quinquefolia
  • Coptis quinquesecta
  • Coptis teeta - Yunnan goldthread, Yunnan huang lian in Chinese (Chinese: 云南黃連; pinyin: Yúnnán huánglián)
  • Coptis trifolia - threeleaf goldthread, savoyane, canker-root (Eastern Eurasia, Greenland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Canada, USA)
Coptis occidentalis fruit

Uses

Coptis teeta is used as a medicinal herb in China and the Eastern Himalayan regions of India particularly in Mishmi Hills of Arunachal Pradesh where it is used as a bitter tonic for treating malarial fever[1][2] and dyspepsia.[3] It is also believed to help insomnia in Chinese herbology. The roots contain the bitter alkaloid berberine.[4] Studies have shown that the species has become endangered both due to overexploitation as well as intrinsic genetic bottlenecks such as high male sterility induced by genetic mutations.[5][6] As a result of the synaptic mutation and ensuing male sterility the sexual reproduction in the species is significantly depressed [6] The dried roots (goldthread) were commercially marketed in Canada until the 1950s or early 60s, to be steeped into a "tea" and swabbed onto areas affected by thrush (candidiasis) infection.

Ecology
Coptis aspleniifolia leaves

The species inhabits warm and cold temperate forests of oak-rhododendron association.[2] It is occasionally seen growing under bamboo thickets around Mayodia region of Dibang Valley district in the Mishmi Hills of Arunachal Pradesh in India. It flowers during early spring March–April and sets fruit/seed in July–August. The seedlings are rare and are often found germinating on moss laden dead wood on the forest floor or even on moss laden branches of Rhododendron. A new subspecies was recognised in C. teeta by Pandit & Babu and was named as subsp. lohitensis, which is morphologically very different from subsp. teeta and it is geographically distinct and inhabits broad leaf forests in Delai Valley of Lohit district in Arunachal Pradesh, India.[1]

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References
  1. Pandit MK, Babu CR, 1993. The cytology and taxonomy of Coptis teeta Wall. (Ranunculaceae). Botanical Journal of Linnean Society, 111 : 371 —378
  2. Pandit MK, Babu CR, 1998. Biology and conservation of Coptis teeta Wall. – an endemic and endangered medicinal herb of Eastern Himalaya. Environmental Conservation, 25 (3) : 262 —272
  3. Huang, J.; Long, C. (2007). "Coptis teeta-based agroforestry system and its conservation potential: A case study from northwest Yunnan". AMBIO. 36 (4): 343–49. doi:10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[343:CTASAI]2.0.CO;2.
  4. Pandit, 1991. Biology & Conservation of Coptis teeta Wall. (Ranunculaceae). Ph.D. Thesis, University of Delhi
  5. Pandit, M. K. & Babu, C. R. (2000) Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 133, 525–533.
  6. Pandit, M. K. and Babu, C. R. 2003. “The effects of loss of sex in clonal populations of an endangered perennial Coptis teeta (Ranunculaceae),” Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 143, no. 1, pp. 47–54.
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