Species: Acorus calamus Family: Acoraceae, order Acorales Description: medicinal plant, primitive monocot Resources: chloroplast genome

Information:

References: Mukherjee, P.K. et al. 2007 ; Houghton, P.J. et al. 2006 ; Houghton, P.J. et al. 2007 ;
           Pai, A. and McCarthy, B.C. 2005 ; Goremykin, V.V. et al. 2005 ; Mehrotra, S. et al. 2003 ;
           Chase, M.W. 2004 ; Kumar, R. et al. 2009 ; Ahmed, M.B. et al. 2007 ; Gilani, A.U. et al. 2006 ;
           Shah, A.J., and Gilani, A.H. 2009 ; Hazra, R. et al. 2007 ; Ghosh, M. 2006 ;
           Kim, H. et al. 2009

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	Acorus calamus L. is thought to originate from India, but it is today naturalized in the Western Hemisphere
	Sweet flag is a variety native to North America
	The order Acorales with just one family of Acoraceae is sister to all other monocots, thus occupying a unique position in angiosperm phylogeny
	Described as semi-aquatic or aquatic plant, calamus favors wet environment
	Especially for the sterile triplod variety, rhizome secures survival and propagation
	Aside from common metabolites found in storage organs (e.g. polysaccharides and tannins), calamus rhizome accumulates fragrant volatiles. Cancer-inducing potential was demonstrated for asarone, the major component of the essential oil from the tetraploid Acorus variety. Its content in the oil of Acorus calamus L. is only about 5%.
	The sweet scent of the essential oil lead to its use in perfumes production. The bitter taste (likely owing to the sesquiterpene content) makes calamus rhizomes an effective carminative. However, precautions should be taken to monitor the origin of the drug and avoid the ingestion of asarone
	Calamus is an ancient medicinal plant valued by different cultures
	Whereas no transformation protocols for Acorus calamus exist so far, micropropagation and regeneration efforts have already been successful
	Apart from species conservation, researchers are also interested in biological activities of calamus rhizome extracts and isolated constituents

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Last updated: 22 July 2009