Phytochemical and pharmacological analysis of Lepidagathis cristata, Willd. (Acanthaceae) 

Abstract :

Amphibian declination is mainly due to water pollution. The water may appear clean but there is enormous physicochemical elements dissolved there which contaminate the water and affect the quality of water and life s. The adult amphibians also remain exposed to water quality. 0-25% of the total utilizable water in India is infested with water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes). Numbers of problems are caused due to water hyacinth. The study was carried out in the Cauvery delta region of Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur and Thanjavur districts. Results of the analyses are interpreted using standard statistical procedures. A total of twelve species of frogs and toads were recorded from the study area of three districts which belonged to five families. All the 31 ponds have good diversity of amphibians in which Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis was the most commonly encountered species. Among them, the population of E. cyanophlyctis was higher in three classified areas of E. crassipes ponds than other species. Amphibians were higher in the less colonized E. crassipes ponds than the ponds with dense E. crassipes . One way ANOVA was used to test amphibian density with response to water quality parameters in water hyacinth infested ponds. The analysis showed that salinity was significantly higher (P<0.05) in water hyacinth infested areas (f = 1.3, P = 0.01) than open water/less infestation areas. Density of amphibian population (13.5/acre) was decreased in the dense Eichhornia ponds when compared to less and sparse ponds of water hyacinth. Therefore it could be concluded that the exotic species of water hyacinth might have influenced the amphibian’s abundance, diversity and distributional variations in addition to water quality of Cauvery delta ponds. In order to conserve amphibians, effective control of water hyacinths of various ponds of deltaic region is very important.