''Sinopodophyllum'' is a

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of ...

perennial plant In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...

in the family

Berberidaceae The Berberidaceae are a family (biology), family of 18 genera of flowering plants commonly called the barberry family. This family is in the order (biology), order Ranunculales. The family contains about 700 known species, of which the majority ...

, described as a genus in 1979. It includes only one known species, ''Sinopodophyllum hexandrum'', native to

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

, northern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, and western

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

). Common names include Himalayan may apple and Indian may apple.

Description

''Sinopodophyllum hexandrum'' is low to the ground with glossy green, drooping, lobed leaves on its few stiff branches, bearing a pale pink flower and bright red-orange bulbous fruit. The ornamental appearance of the plant make it a desirable addition to

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

-type gardens. It can be propagated by seed or by dividing the

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

. It is very tolerant of cold temperatures, as would be expected of a Himalayan plant, but it does not tolerate dry conditions. Its name in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

Ayurveda Ayurveda (; ) is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. It is heavily practised throughout India and Nepal, where as much as 80% of the population report using ayurveda. The theory and practice of ayur ...

is ''bantrapushi'' or ''Giriparpat'' and is locally referred to as 'ban kakdi' in the Valley of Flowers National Park.

Medicinal uses

The root and rhizome of the plant are poisonous, but used traditionally for medicine. They are composed of aryltetralin

lignan The lignans are a large group of low molecular weight polyphenols found in plants, particularly seeds, whole grains, and vegetables. The name derives from the Latin word for "wood". Lignans are precursors to phytoestrogens. They may play a rol ...

s that have anticancer, antifungal, and immunomodulatory properties.Kharkwal, A.C., Kushwaha, R., Prakash, O., Ogra, R.K., Bhattacharya, A., Nagar, P.K. and Ahuja, P.S., (2008). An efficient method of propagation of Podophyllum hexandrum: an endangered medicinal plant of the Western Himalayas under ex situ conditions. ''Journal of natural Medicines'', ''62''(2), pp.211-216. The rhizome of the plant also contains a resin, known generally and commercially as Indian Podophyllum Resin, which can be processed to extract

podophyllin Podophyllum resin, also known as podophyllum or podophyllin, is a resin made from the roots of the American mandrake. It is used as a medication to treat genital warts and plantar warts, including in people with HIV/AIDS. It is not recommende ...

(podophyllotoxin), a

neurotoxin Neurotoxins are toxins that are destructive to nervous tissue, nerve tissue (causing neurotoxicity). Neurotoxins are an extensive class of exogenous chemical neurological insult (medical), insultsSpencer 2000 that can adversely affect function ...

. Rhizomes contain up to 15% podophyllin. In carefully administered doses, the resin can be applied topically to treat genital warts.

Distribution and habitat

''Sinopodophyllum hexandrum'' grows across the Himalayan region, east to Afghanistan, and north to Southwest China. It is reasonably abundant in the Great Himalayan National Park of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

. In the fringes of the Valley of Flowers National Park, the plant's density is about one individual per square meter according to a study by C.P. Kala.

Conservation

Harvesting from the wild is becoming unsustainable.Chaurasia, O., & Ballabh, B. (2012). Podophyllum L: An endergered and anticancerous medicinal plant–An overview. ''Indian Journal Traditional of Traditional Knowledge'', ''11'', 234–241. http://nopr.niscair.res.in/handle/123456789/13851''Podophyllum peltatum'' L. (May-apple). Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)(2012). http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/science-and-innovation/science-publications-and-resources/resources/canadian-medicinal-crops/medicinal-crops/podophyllum-peltatum-l-may-apple/?id=1301436227464Rawal, D. S., Sijapati, J., Rana, N., Rana, P., Giri, A., & Shrestha, S. (2009). Some high value medicinal plants of Khumbum region Nepal, ''10'', 73–82. Over-exploitation of ''S. hexandrum'' and deforestation have resulted in its current

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

endangered listing.Ghimire, S. K., Mckey, D., & Aumeeruddy-Thomas, Y. (2006). Himalayan medicinal plant diversity in an ecologically complex high altitude anthropogenic landscape, Dolpo, Nepal. ''Environmental Conservation'', ''33'', 1. doi:10.1017/S0376892906002943 It is also listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (

CITES CITES (shorter acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of inte ...

) in which collecting and exporting all plant parts of ''S. hexandrum'' except for seed and pollen is illegal. A study published by Kharkwal et al. (2008) found that propagating ''S. hexandrum'' seeds in an off-site controlled environment allowed seedlings to grow one year faster than in the field. Effective ex situ methods such as this can conserve genetic diversity while providing a substantial volume of transplants to go back out into the wild to combat over-harvesting vulnerability. File:Podophyllum hexandrum leaf early autumn.jpg, Close-up of single leaf File:Podophyllum hexandrum ripe fruit early autumn.jpg, The approximately 5 cm long ripe fruit File:Podophyllum hexandrum 1.JPG, Flowers File:Podophyllum hexandrum 'Majus', 2020.jpg, Portrait of a flower with leaves underneath File:Podophyllum hexandrum 'Majus', side view 2020.jpg, Close-up on a flower and its reproductive parts File:Podophyllum hexandrum 2.JPG, Some fruits of a >20-year-old plant

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q9077845, from2=Q15347589 Berberidaceae Monotypic Ranunculales genera Berberidaceae genera