Ixora

Abstract: Ixora coccinea Linn., (Rubiaceae) commonly known as jungle of geranium and red ixora, is an evergreen shrub found throughout India. Depending on the medical condition, the flowers, leaves, roots, and the stem are used to treat various ailments in the Indian traditional system of medicine, the Ayurveda, and also in various folk medicines. The fruits, when fully ripe, are used as a dietary source. Phytochemical studies indicate that the plant contains important phytochemicals such as lupeol, ursolic acid, oleanolic acid, sitosterol, rutin, lecocyanadin, anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, glycosides of kaempferol and quercetin. Pharmacological studies suggest that the plant possesses antioxidative, antibacterial, gastroprotective, hepatoprotective, antidiarrhoeal, antinociceptive, antimutagenic, antineoplastic and chemopreventive effects, thus lending scientific support to the plant's ethnomedicinal uses. In the present review, efforts are made in addressing its ethnomedicinal uses, chemical constituents, and validated pharmacological observations.

Abstract: Species-rich genera often have various confl icting circumscriptions from independent regional fl ora treatments. Testing the monophyly of these groups of plants is an important step toward the establishment of a phylogenetic classifi cation. The genus Ixora of the tribe Ixoreae in the subfamily Ixoroideae (coffee family or Rubiaceae) is a species-rich pantropical genus of ca. 500 species. Phylogenetic analyses of Ixoreae based on combined sequence data from one nuclear (nrETS) and two chloroplast ( rps16 and trnT-F ) markers reveal the paraphyly of Ixora as presently delimited and also show that the tribe can be subdivided into three major clades: the Mascarene/neotropical/Malagasy/African clade, the Pacifi c clade, and the Asian clade. Given the lack of morphological synapomorphies supporting the different Ixora clades and the morphological consistency of the ingroup taxa, we propose a broad circumscription of Ixora including all its satellite genera: Captaincookia , Doricera , Hitoa , Myonima , Sideroxyloides , Thouarsiora, and Versteegia . The current infrageneric classifi cation of Ixora is not supported. The different Ixora subclades represent geographical units. Nuclear and chloroplast tree topologies were partially incongruent, indicating at least four potential natural hybridization events. Other confl icting positions for the cultivated species are most likely due to anthropogenic hybridization.

Abstract: A new species of black mildew fungi was discovered infecting leaves of Ixora brachiata (Rubiaceae). The new species is described as Amazonia brachiata and it is the first record of an Amazonia species on I. brachiata. It is documented in detail with description, line drawings and photo plate, and is morphologically compared to similar species previously reported on the host family. A key to Amazonia species found on Rubiaceae is included to aid in their identification.