Indigenous medicinal usages of some macrophytes of the Muriyad wetland in Vembanad-Kol, Ramsar site, Kerala

Abstract

365-367Iindigenous medicinal practices are an important component of the traditional knowledge. Wetlands provide a unique habitat for several medicinal plants. Apart from their commercial value, the local community utilizes a good number of these plants for various curative purposes, which are unknown to the people at large. Several of these plants are very sensitive to the fluctuations in the normal physico-chemical parameters of the wetland. A slight alteration or degradation of the wetland may result in the disappearance or the extinction of these plants. This will ultimately result in large-scale economic loss in terms of the medicinal products synthesized from these plants. Apart form the loss of plants, which are exclusively used by a community for their health- related uses, this will also result in the loss of local knowledge on the medicinal properties of these plants, which very often cannot be retrieved. Attempt has been made to document some of the little known medicinal properties of wetland/wetland-associated plants used by the local community living around Muriyad wetland system