Solanum Pandeyi:
A new species of wild brinjal has been discovered from one of the remote islands of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago by a scientist from the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) and named it as Solanum pandeyi.
- Solanum Pandeyi is a species of wild brinjal recorded in the evergreen forest of Middle Andaman.
- It was found growing in the open along the forest edges and was locally known as wild orange eggplant.
- The new species is similar to Solanum lasiocarpum and belongs to the Leptostemonum clade of Solanum.
- It was used by an indigenous Negrito tribe, Great Andamanese, for food and medicinal purposes.
- Most seeds and roots are used to treat tooth infection.
- Ripe fruit with jaggery (a natural unrefined sugar), chilli, garlic, ginger, and salt are used to make sour-sweet sauce by the Ranchi and Bengali settler community of the island.
- Botanical Survey of India is India’s apex taxonomic and floristic research institution under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
- It was established on 13 February 1890.
- It provides the scientific foundation for plant conservation, documentation, identification and sustainable use of the country’s plant wealth.
