Ethnopharmacological Properties of Family Asteraceae

Taxonomy

Cassini in (1819) created the underlying order of the family gathering genera into different tribes. Several taxonomists have refined this innate idea in the manner that this is still a principal class over the genus level utilized for the classification of sunflowers (Panero & Funk, 2008). Carlquist (1976) and Wagenitz (1976) gathered these tribes into different subfamilies in Asteraceae systematics that started with characterizing the ideas of subfamilies Cichorioideae and Asteroideae. The morphological attributes used to outline these two groups are for the most part in light of discontinuities in the morphology of corolla, anther and style. As indicated by Bremer (1994), the Asteroideae are portrayed (with certain exemptions) by having true ray florets, disk corollas with short projections, caveate pollen, stigmatic surfaces of style branches isolated into two marginal lines sometimes intersecting at apices. Classification of the Asteraceae has been changed rapidly due to the incorporation of the results from the molecular phylogenetic studies. More precisely through the identification of the monophyletic groups which were traditionally included in Cichorioideae. Studies carried out by Jansen & Palmer (1987) and Bremer (1994) three different subfamilies were identified which includes Asteroideae, Barnadesioideae, and Cichorioideae with 17 tribes. Thorne & Reveal (2007) perceived the equivalent subfamily bunches utilizing the prior name Carduoideae for the Cichorioideae. They extended number of tribes up to 25, perceiving the three new tribes which were distinguished by molecular investigation. Tribal groupings of Panero and Funk (2002) were accepted by Kubitzki, Kadereit & Jeffrey (2007). At last they perceived 24 tribes and gathered them into five subfamilies. They perceived a monophyletic Barnadesioideae, a monophyletic Asteroideae and splits the grade of clades between these two groups into three polyphyletic subfamilies namely Mutisioideae, Carduoideae and Cichorioideae. Due to increase in the molecular studies, there is an increase in certainty and resolution in the phylogenetic analysis which leads to the identification of more major family lineages. In this scenario, genera Corymbium, Gymnarrhena, and Hecastocleis were discovered. Subfamily Asteroideae ruled the classification of the Asteraceae that contains over 70% of the species of the family. Molecular studies revealed three major lineage in the Asteroideae found by Kim & Jansen (1995) and Panero & Funk (2008) which have been recently perceived at the super tribe level as Asterodae, Helianthodae, and Senecionodae (Robinson, 2004; 2005).