{"id":326523,"date":"2026-03-03T10:57:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T10:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/326523\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T10:57:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T10:57:27","slug":"researchers-identify-new-gugal-species-ahmedabad-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/326523\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers identify new \u2018gugal\u2019 species | Ahmedabad News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ahmedabad: For most Gujaratis, \u2018gugal&#8217; is an <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/ayurveda\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ayurveda<\/a> staple, &#8220;widely used in medicines to burn fat and for joint pain&#8221;. Recently, a group of researchers mapping the traditional grazing routes of Maldhari pastoralists in Saurashtra led to the identification of a new \u2018gugal&#8217; plant species called \u2018Commiphora shankarsinhiana&#8217; from the Osam Hills of Rajkot. This find has been published in the Dec 2025 edition of the Journal of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy.<\/p>\n<p>Ahmedabad: Gujaratis Stranded In Gulf, Passport Office Bomb Threat Case, ICU Doctors Probe &amp; More<\/p>\n<p>The find dates to 2021, when researchers Khyaati Thakkar and Pankaj Joshi noticed a &#8220;dry tree with yellowish bark&#8221; on rocky slopes near Patanvav village. &#8220;At that time, the plant had no leaves. It looked like a dry tree with yellowish bark, and we could not identify it immediately,&#8221; Thakkar said. Most Indian gugal varieties, including Commiphora wightii and Commiphora stocksiana, are monoecious shrubs. The new specimen, however, proved to be a &#8220;small dioecious tree, up to 3m tall.&#8221; In botanical terms, dioecious means male and female flowers grow on separate trees. The new gugal species name honours late Shankarsinh N Rajput (1927-2005), a traditional herbal practitioner from Maharashtra.Prof Ekta Joshi noted that \u2018kharo gugal&#8217; and \u2018mitho gugal&#8217; are traditionally distinguished by physical features. &#8220;Gugal resin,&#8221; she added, &#8220;Is widely used in medicines for fat burning and joint pain, and was historically mixed into construction materials to bind stones.&#8221; Dr Joshi said long-term conservation &#8220;will require collaboration among communities and the forest department regulating grazing, raising awareness and conducting regular ecological monitoring&#8221;. Researchers Khyaati Thakkar, A M Vasava and K S Rajput are affiliated with the department of botany at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (MSU); Ekta Joshi is with Shree RR Lalan College, Bhuj; and Pankaj Joshi, based in Bhuj, is an independent researcher. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahmedabad: For most Gujaratis, \u2018gugal&#8217; is an ayurveda staple, &#8220;widely used in medicines to burn fat and for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[5305,5304,5306,5307,27359,151189,151190,151188,103,61,60,151191,371,5308],"class_list":["post-326523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-ahmedabad-latest-news","tag-ahmedabad-news","tag-ahmedabad-news-live","tag-ahmedabad-news-today","tag-ayurveda","tag-commiphora-shankarsinhiana","tag-fat-burning-medicine","tag-gugal-species","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-joint-pain-relief","tag-medication","tag-today-news-ahmedabad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}