Senna alata: Can we prospect its stress resilience and multifaceted economic potential for creating vegetation cover on wastelands?

Abstract

Senna alata (L.) Roxb., of the family Fabaceae, is a stress resilient shrubby plant of leguminous group with diazotrophic bacterial association that grows naturally in wastelands and has significant phytoremediation potential against toxic heavy metals. It plays important ecological service by attracting the honey bees and other wild bees with its bright yellow flowers to provide forages. Moreover, capacity of S. alata to produce considerable biomass with profuse branching systems in adverse soil condition and seeds that remain viable for several years make it distinctively potential candidate for modifying the unfavourable soil condition of wastelands. However, plants that have great ethnomedicinal and economic importance as per available literature are considered as more promising for the optimum use of degraded sites for the economic development of the local people by implementing favourable agronomic practices. S. alata fulfils these criteria too as it is traditionally known for its antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimalarial and antidiabetic properties. Again, recently this plant has been reported as potential alternative source for producing commercially important cellulose. However, there is lack of information in available literature describing the potential of S. alata as a stress resilient candidate worth to be used for creation of vegetation cover over degraded wastelands. Therefore, here, we review the prospectives of S. alata to explore its feasibility for creating vegetation cover to improve soil quality in wastelands, which will be helpful to plant scientists, environmentalists, and pharmacologists.