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Systematics, Sustainable Use and Conservation of Tribe Ocimeae (Basil and Allies, Lamiaceae)

Ocimum basilicum ‘True Thai’ a cultivar grown widely for its culinary value

Over the past 10 years, the extensive herbarium, living and DNA collections at Kew were used as the basis for the study.  Baseline inventory work included major revisions of the group in Africa and South East Asia. A revision of Lavandula which addressed the needs of a taxonomic, conservation and horticultural audiences was completed and a herbaceous border illustrating the diversity of Lavandula finalised. A revision of Plectranthus was used to demonstrate the value of Herbarium collections in production of preliminary conservation assessments in collaboration with the GIS unit and 120 species conservation assessments of Ocimeae have been disseminated. Comparative work resulted in a paper in a higher impact journal which presented a molecular phylogeny of the Ocimeae and used it to elucidate relationships, biogeography and the distribution of morphological, palynological and phytochemical characters.  The phylogeny was then used to inform a review of the ethnobotanical uses of Plectranthus.  This multidisciplinary work in Ocimeae also served as a basis for investigating the distribution of flavonoids and diterpenes and the anti-insect activity of Ocimum.  This focused approach allowed integration of a number of collaborative relationships involving researchers in Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, Thailand, Ireland, Denmark and the UK.

Over the next five years, phylogenetic work in Tribe Ocimeae will concentrate on Plectranthus and a more robust phylogeny of the genus will be produced in mid 2006 (in collaboration with the University of Reading).  This will be used to further investigate the distribution of phytochemicals and pollination mechanisms, the latter as part of the Hotspots project. The recent review on the ethnobotanical uses of species of Plectranthus showed that in most cases the compounds associated with their medicinal uses are not known.  As part of our research into the chemistry of this genus we have been studying the flavonoids and diterpenoid in a range of species and testing the isolated compounds for anti-malarial and anti-insect activity.  We plan to write a review of the distribution of diterpenoids within the species and collate information together about the pharmacological properties of these compounds.  We also plan to publish work on the anti-insect activity of Plectranthus-derived compounds and test extracts for activity against bacteria, especially against tuberculosis.

A molecular phylogeny of tribe Ocimeae subtribe Hyptidinae will be produced in collaboration with Brazilian collaborators (subject to funding).

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