Phylogenetic relationship among some species of Trichosanthes L (Cucurbitaceae) was assessed using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA to infer the taxonomic status of Trichosanthes anguina. The parsimony analysis of the entire ITS region resulted in 85 maximally parsimonious trees (MPTs) with a total length of 100 steps, a consistency index (CI) of 0.8800 (0. 8378 excluding uninformative characters), a homoplasy index (HI) of 0.1200 (0. 1622 excluding uninformative characters), rescaled consistency index (RC) of 0.7733 and a retention index (RI) of 0.8788. Our findings support the recognition of T. cucumerina var. anguina (L.) Haines as a variety of T. cucumerina.

Metabolic diversity in various plants of various kingdoms and species has successfully solved many fundamental questions arising due to different and varying growth conditions and parameters they are subjected to. It is important to study metabolic diversity to understand how science has evolved and succeeded to address the practical application of recombinant DNA technology for the benefit of plants themselves and also to know how these metabolic changes help them adapt to diverse conditions.