Team spots rare and endangered species of medicinal plants

Eight researchers from Indian Institute of Astrophysics cycled all the way from Koramangala to The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences & Technology in Yelahanka to explore rare and endangered species of ancient medicinal plants. The tour started at 6 am on Sunday.

The researchers reached their destination in three hours and their excursion proved to be worth the pain. They encountered rare medicinal plants that find mention even in Ayurveda and other Vedic texts.

Binu Kumar Nair, postdoctoral researcher at IIAP, says, “The campus has all those plants that can grow in the South Indian climate. Being an Astrophysics scholar, it was interesting to come across and know about so many plant species. These are plants that we come across every day, but we don’t know about their value.”
Since TDU also has a hospital on the campus, the patients are treated using the herbs and medicinal plants found here.

The university campus has about 1,600 species of medicinal plants and 600 of them available at their nursery for people to take at minimal costs. Of the 1,600 species available, 200 are endangered species.

When Ganesh Babu, Senior Research Officer, visited IIAP a couple of days ago to identify and name the plants available in IIAP, he had invited the researchers to come and explore a variety of species at the Trans-Disciplinary University. He explains, “We have a cure for almost all diseases through our medicinal plants. PterocarpusMarsupium is used for diabetes, Syzygium Caryophyllatum gives nutricious fruits like jamuns which are very sweet, and Wild Moringa helps in joint pains. There are 10 such trees with such rots that are used in medicines. We have 45 tree gardens in all demarcated according to the medicinal uses for example one for treating fever, one for diabetes, one that enhances water quality and so on.”

The researchers also came across the Seetha Ashok tree which helps with female infertility and is endangered, the Rudraksha tree which cures blood pressure, and the Camphor tree and four different types of incense stick trees.

source: http://www.bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Bangalore / by Reya Mehrotra, Bangalore Mirror Bureau / October 09th, 2018