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ENDANGERED AQUATIC MEDICINAL PLANTS OF KERALA

 

Clinical courses

ABOUT AUTHOR:
Uma Nath.U
Department Of Pharmaceutical Analysis,
Daleview College Of Pharmacy And Research Centre,
Punalal, Trivandrum, Kerala
umaanalysis@yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT
The aquatic plants in kerala are of greatest medicinal importance as that of the herbs. Some of these plants where used for serious disease treatment like cancer and genetic disorders. The folk medicines indicate the use of certain aquatic plants even for inducing polyploidy. The aquatic plants usage in medicines is now nearly ignored and they are under extinction. This paper deals with the description of some of these medicinal plants. It mainly concentrates on aquatic plants present in the ponds of kerala.

REFERENCE ID: PHARMATUTOR-ART-2159

Introduction
The aquatic plants in kerala are of greatest medicinal importance as that of the herbs. Some of these plants where used for serious disease treatment like cancer and genetic disorders. The folk medicines indicate the use of certain aquatic plants even for inducing polyploidy. The aquatic plants usage in medicines is now nearly ignored and they are under extinction. This paper deals with the description of some of these medicinal plants. It mainly concentrates on aquatic plants present in the ponds of kerala.
The aim of the paper is to give an information regarding this species and the need to protect them  and to maintain  a healthy life.


1) LOTUS
Lotus is the water plant. It has broad floating leaves and bright fragrant flowers. The leaves and flowers float and have long stems that contain air spaces. It has many petals overlapping in the symmetrical pattern. The root functions of the Lotus are carried out by rhizomes that fan out horizontally through the mud below the water. The round leaves are up to 50 cm in diameter. The flowers are rosy pink with little bit of white shade. The seeds are hard and dark brown in colour. They can vary in shape from round to oval to oblong. The Lotus Flower opens in the morning and the petals fall in the afternoon. The Lotus, the national flower of India, is a symbol of supreme reality. Hindu religion and mythology portray goddess Saraswathi, the muse of learning, as being seated on a lotus flower. To the Indian psyche, the lotus is more than a flower – it represents both beauty and non-attachment. There is a saying that although it grows in mud, it smells of myrrh. Toru Dutt in her sonnet “The Lotus” addresses the flower as the “queenliest flower that blows.”

The lotus grows in fresh water ponds and lakes and in semitropical climates. It blossoms gradually and magnificently – one petal at a time and reaches full bloom when the rays of the sun kiss the flower. There are innumerable poems praising the love between the sun and the flower in literature in general and Indian literature in particular. The lotus is found in different colours, namely, white, red, blue, pink, and purple and is found in many Asian countries.


MEDICINAL VALUE
The lotus is edible and has many curative properties; its use in traditional Asian medicine is as old as history. The flower is used to brew lotus teas, which relieves cardiac complications and helps to stop bleeding. The roots of the plant help in getting rid of the body’s toxic wastes and in strengthening the lives; it also helps in reducing body heat. The roots and rhizomes are useful in treating small pox, throat complications, pigmentation problems in skin, and diarrhoea.

The cooked lotus root is good for the stomach and the reproductive organs. It also helps to contract the blood vessels and prevents blood loss and complications such as coughing blood and blood in stools. The stem helps in the healthy growth of the foetus and also used to treat tightness of the chest. The lotus seed is used to tone the spleen and the kidney and is also used as food. Soups are also made from the seeds. The large leaves are used as cold bed sheets to treat high fever and for the treatment of summer heat and further they are used to things. The things that are thus wrapped remain fragrant for a long time. In short, it can be said that the lotus is a panacea.

2) MOSQUITO FERN
mosquito fern (genus Azolla), any of six species in the fern family Salviniaceae of the division Pteridophyta (the lower vascular plants). This family contains only one other genus, Salvinia (10–12 species). Members of Azolla are distributed nearly worldwide but are most diverse in tropical regions. Mosquito ferns are very small plants, often less than 2.5 cm (1 inch) long, that float on the surface of still waters, sometimes becoming stranded on muddy banks. Their name is an allusion to the fact that the plants sometimes thoroughly cover the surface of a pond or other body of water, preventing mosquitoes and other insects from penetrating through to the water to lay eggs. The tiny leaves are in two alternating rows on either side of the stem and are divided into an upper green lobe and a lower white to transparent lobe. The sporangia are enclosed in small, structurally complex, globose structures known as sporocarps, with separate sporocarps formed containing either numerous microspores or a single megaspore. Both types of spores are globose (tetrahedral), but an average megaspore is 20 or more times larger than a microspore. The highly reduced gametophytes, which develop underwater, are mostly contained within the spore walls.

Azolla is one of the most important ferns in agriculture. More money has been spent on its study and more scientific papers have been published involving this genus than on any other fern. Long ago, farmers in Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia discovered that rice fields in which mosquito ferns were released produced higher yields of grain. For centuries, families jealously guarded their individual strains of Azolla, keeping them alive in containers between plantings and inoculating the fields at the beginning of each crop cycle.

MEDICINAL PROPERTY
cough due to tuberculosis. Leaves: common cold and cough, measles without adequate eruption, pain from rheumatism, difficulty in micturition, edema, cnidosis, skin itching, pyocutaneous disease, erysipelas, scalding and burns. Root: oral administration: decocting, 9-15g. Leaf: oral administration: decocting, 3-15g, megadose 30g. External: appropriate amount, prepared decoction for washing or hot iron; stir-heated and keep the property, powdered and mixed with oil for application. Not use in case of exterior deficiency and spontaneous sweating.

3) PURSLANE
This Kozhuppa is native to India. The leaves are alternate. Each succulent leaf is entire and the leaves are clustered at stem joints and ends. The flowers have 5 regular parts and are up to 0.6cm wide. They are yellow. Blooms first appear in late spring and continue into mid fall. The flowers open singly at the center of the leaf cluster for only a few hours on sunny mornings. Seeds are formed in a tiny pod the lid of which opens when the seeds are ready. It can be found growing wild and/or cultivated in much of the world. It existed in the New World before the arrival of Columbus, and was found in Europe by the late 16th century. It can be found growing in almost any unshaded area, including flower beds, corn fields, and waste places. Purslane can be found growing in cold climate areas as well as warm areas. It has been used in salads and as a medicinal plant (for people) for hundreds of years Purslane is a good edible and is eaten throughout much of Europe and Asia. It can be eaten fresh or cooked and has no bitter taste at all. Since it has a mucilaginous quality it is great for soups and stews.

MEDICINAL PROPERTY
Known as Ma Chi Xian in traditional Chinese medicine, its active constituents include: noradrenaline, calcium salts, dopamine, DOPA, malic acid, citric acid, glutamic acid, asparagic acid, nicotinic acid, alanine, glucose, fructose, and sucrose.Betacyanins is olated from Portulaca oleracea ameliorated cognition deficits in aged mice. A rare subclass of Homoisoflavonoids, from the plant, showed in vitro cytotoxic activities towards four human cancer cell lines. Use is contraindicated during pregnancy and for those with cold and weak digestion. Purslane is a clinically effective treatment for oral lichen planus, and its leaves are used to treat insect or snake bites on the skin, boils, sores, pain from bee stings, bacillary dysentery, diarrhea, hemorrhoids, postpartum bleeding, and intestinal bleeding.

Strangely, Portulaca oleracea efficiently removes bisphenol A, an endocrine-disrupting chemical, from a hydroponic solution, how this happens is unclear.

4) INDIAN PENNY WORT
Kudangal grows in tropical swampy areas.[3] The stems are slender, creeping stolons, green to reddish-green in color, connecting plants to each other. It has long-stalked, green, reniform leaves with rounded apices which have smooth texture with palmately netted veins. The leaves are borne on pericardial petioles, around 2 cm. The rootstock consists of rhizomes, growing vertically down. They are creamish in colour and covered with root hairsl

The flowers are pinkish to red in colour, born in small, rounded bunches (umbels) near the surface of the soil. Each flower is partly enclosed in two green bracts. The hermaphrodite flowers are minute in size (less than 3 mm), with 5-6 corolla lobes per flower. Each flower bears five stamens and two styles. The fruit are densely reticulate, distinguishing it from species of Hydrocotyle which have smooth, ribbed or warty fruit. The crop matures in three months, and the whole plant, including the roots, is harvested manually.

MEDICINAL PROPERTY
Kudangal may be useful in the treatment of anxiety. Treatment of wounds, burns, and ulcerous skin ailments, and prevention of keloid and hypertrophic scars. Extracts of the plant have been employed to treat second- and third-degree burns. Extracts have been used topically to accelerate healing, particularly in cases of chronic postsurgical and post-trauma wounds. Extracts have been administered orally to treat stress induced stomach and duodenal ulcers.

The Kudangal medicinal plant is used for the treatment of neuro toxic snake. This medicinal plant energises the nerves in human being.

5) JOB’S TEARS
An erect perennial grass, grows up to 1.5 m in height. Leaves are linear-lenceolate, narrowed up from a broad cordate base, stout midrib, flowers found in recemes dropping from long peduncle carrying both male and female flowers. Fruits are ellipsoid of globose, smooth hard tear shaped grains.

MEDICINAL PROPERTY
Fruits—a decoction is used for catarrhal affections of the air passage and inflammation of the urinary tract. Seed— diuretic. Root—used in menstrual disorders. Leaves—used as a drink for inducing fertility in women.

6) BENGHAL DAYFLOWER
Commelina benghalensis ,(6) commonly known as the Benghal dayflower or tropical spiderwort, is a perennial herb native to tropical Asia and Africa. It has been widely introduced to areas outside its native range, including to the neotropics, Hawaii, the West Indies and to both coasts of North America. It flowers from spring into the fall and is often associated with disturbed soils.

In both it native range and areas where it has been introduced it is usually considered a weed, sometimes a serious one. In the United States it has been placed on the Federal Noxious Weed List. It is considered a moderate weed of rice cultivation in Asia. In its native range of sub-Saharan Africa, India, Sri Lanka, and much of Southeast Asia, it is considered a serious weed of an enormous range of crops from tea and coffee to cassava and peanuts. Additional agricultural damage is caused by the fact that it can host the nematode Meloidogyne incognita and the Groundnut rosette virus.

Commelina benghalensis is a wide-ranging plant, being native to tropical and subtropical Asia and Africa, an area otherwise known as the paleotropics. In China it is commonly associated with wet locations. There it can be found from near sea level up to 2300 metres. It is present from the provinces of Hebei and Shandong in the northeast, west to Sichuan and in all provinces south to Hainan, the southernmost province. It is also found in Taiwan.In Japan the plant is restricted to the southern portions of the country from the southern Kanto Region westward and including the islands of Shikoku and Kyushu. Although its roots and tubers are used as a food source, C. benghalensis is not cultivated in Ethiopia, where it grows as a weed.

The plant has also been widely introduced beyond its range to the neotropics, the southeastern United States, California, Hawaii, Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Martinique, Montserrat, Barbados and St Vincent. In Puerto Rico the plant is known from a single collection from Cayey. In the southeastern United States the plant was collected in the 1928, while it was first collected in Hawaii in 1909. In the southeastern states it is present in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and North Carolina and spreading. It was added to the Federal Noxious Weed List in 1983,and by 2003 was considered the most serious pest of Georgia's cotton crop due to widely used herbicides such as glyphosate having little effect on it.It was introduced separately to California in the 1980s, making it the only introduced species of Commelina in the western United States.It is associated with disturbed soils such as yards, lawns and cultivated areas, especially in cotton crops and orange groves.

MEDICINAL VALUE
In China, the plant is used medicinally as a diuretic, febrifuge and anti-inflammatory.In Pakistan it is used as animal fodder and also eaten by humans as a vegetable. It is also used there medicinally, but with different purported effects, including as a laxative and to cure inflammations of the skin as well as leprosy. The people of Nepal eat the young leaves as a vegetable, use a paste derived from the plant to treat burns, and treat indigestion with a juice produced from the roots. Its use as a famine food in India has been recorded. In southeast Asia and Africa it is used as fodder and also medicinally as a poultice.

7) BULRUSH
Typha /'taIf?/ is a genus of about eleven species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. The genus has a largely Northern Hemisphere distribution, but is essentially cosmopolitan, being found in a variety of wetland habitats.

These plants have many common names. They may be known in British English as bulrush, or reedmace, (1)in American English as cattail, catninetail, punks, or corn dog grass, in Australia as cumbungi or bulrush, and in New Zealand as raupo. Other taxa of plants may be known as bulrush, including some sedges in Scirpus and related genera.

The rhizomes are edible. Evidence of preserved starch grains on grinding stones suggests they were eaten in Europe 30,000 years ago.

Typha leaves are alternate and mostly basal on a simple, jointless stem that bears the flowering spikes. The plants are monoecious, with unisexual flowers that develop in dense racemes. The numerous male flowers form a narrow spike at the top of the vertical stem. Each male (staminate) flower is reduced to a pair of stamens and hairs, and withers once the pollen is shed. Large numbers of tiny female flowers form a dense, sausage-shaped spike on the stem below the male spike. In larger species this can be up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long and 1 to 4 centimetres (0.39 to 1.57 in) thick. The seeds are minute, 0.2 millimetres (0.0079 in) long, and attached to fine hairs. When ripe, the heads disintegrate into a cottony fluff from which the seeds disperse by wind.

MEDICINAL VALUE
Typha angustata Bony et Chaub. is a traditional Chinese medicine, commonly used in China for a variety of clinical disorders, including atherosclerosis, cardiovascular diseases, uterus contraction, and wound healing. The effect of the pollen of Typha angustata on the bone inductive capacity of demineralized bone matrix is studied here. Demineralized bone matrix soaked with saline solution was implanted in 8-mm defects in rat calvaria. After surgery all rats received a 0.2-ml injection in the defect sites of Typha angustata extract, plasma, or saline 3 times weekly for 2 to 4 weeks. The repair of bone defects was evaluated by radiography and by histology at 2 and 4 weeks after surgery. Results indicated that the 3% Typha angustata extract and demineralized bone matrix combination produced substantially more bone than demineralized bone matrix alone, while plasma plus demineralized bone matrix induced the same amount of bone formation as Typha angustata extract plus demineralized bone matrix. The osteoinductive potential increased in a dose dependent manner, 3% Typha angustata extract plus demineralized bone matrix produced more bone than the 0.6% Typha angustata extract plus demineralized bone matrix at 2 and 4 weeks. This study demonstrates that an extract of the pollen of Typha angustata is capable of enhancing the osteoinductive potential of demineralized bone matrix.(4)

8) WATER CALTROP
The water caltrop, water chestnut, buffalo nut, bat nut, devil pod, ling nut, singhara  or pani-phal (Hindi: Panifal) is any of three extant species of the genus Trapa: Trapa natans, T. bicornis and the endangered Trapa rossica. The species are floating annual aquatic plants, growing in slow-moving water up to 5 meters deep, native to warm temperate parts of Eurasia and Africa. They bear ornately shaped fruits, which in the case of T. bicornis resemble the head of a bull or the entirety of a flying bat. Each fruit contains a single very large starchy seed. T. natans and T. bicornis have been cultivated in China and India for at least 3,000 years for the edible seeds.

MEDICINAL PROPERTY
The fruits are sweet, astringent, cooling, constipating, haemostatic, diuretic, aphordisiac, antipyretic, appetiser, appetiser and tonic. They are useful in vitiated conditions of pitta, burning sensation,  dyspepsia, hamorrhages, diarrhoea, dysentery, strangury, intermittent fever, leprosy, fatigue, inflammation, erysipelas, bronchitis and general debility.

Conclusion
It comes into a conclusion that all the aquatic plants are medicinally important and they should also be given equal importance like other herbs.

REFERENCE
1) prota.org
2) toxicologycentre.com
3) IOSR Journal of Pharmacy and Biological Sciences (IOSRJPBS)
ISSN: 2278-3008 Volume 2, Issue 3 (July-August 2012), PP 29-35  4) Yan SQ1, Wang GJ, Shen TY.Effects of pollen from Typha angustata on the osteoinductive potential of demineralized bone matrix in rat calvarial defects.
5) springerreference.com
6) Schumann, Karl Moritz (1895). "Commelinaceae". In Engler, Adolf. Die Pflanzenwelt Ost-Afrikas und der Nachbargebiete (in German) C. Berlin: D. Reimer. pp. 134–137.

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