Morphological and molecular identification of a novel species of Uvaria (Annonaceae) with potential medicinal properties

The imperfectly known genus Uvaria (Annonaceae) comprises ca. 20 species of shrubs to small trees in the Philippines. During recent fieldwork at Valderrama, Antique, a suspected new species of Uvaria was collected. Based on morphology, this Uvaria species can be distinguised from other Philippine congeners by its large obovate-lanceolate leaves and pubescent carpels. Additional molecular characters inferred from two plastid DNA regions (matK and trnL-F) were sequenced from this Uvaria species and U. grandiflora to gain more certitude on the identify of this Uvaria species. Phylogenetic analysis using Maximum Parsimony was carried out including 48 foreign Uvaria species and other Annonaceae genera derived from Genbank. Results showed that the divergent Uvaria species and U. grandiflora were nested among the SE Asian Uvaria subclade, with a strong support (BS = 91%). Therefore, we propose a new species, Uvaria valderramensis sp. nov. The first phytochemical assays on the leaf extracts of U. valderramensis showed the presence of triterpenes, sterols, tannins, flavonoids, phenols and alkaloids