Ethnomedicinal aspects of angiospermic epiphytes and parasites of Kerala, India

Abstract

Studies on ethnomedicinal aspects of epiphytes and parasites of Kerala have been conducted and it revealed that as the tribes of Kerala have a lot of terrestrial medicinal plants available around their premises, they seldom resorted to the epiphytic and parasitic medicinal plants occurring on tall trees for their use as drugs for the treatment of ailments. Hence, their knowledge on epiphytes and parasites was found to be very limited, especially among the young generation of the tribes. The present study reported the use of 28 species (16 epiphytes and 12 parasites), which represent about 13.4% of the total epiphytes and parasites present in Kerala, and they are of valuable properties and uses and are used for curing or corrective measures for several diseases. Majority of the properties and uses recorded are first reports pertaining to these special groups of plants. A thorough investigation on the phytochemistry and therapeutic values of the bioactive compounds contained in these epiphytes and parasites would result in the discovery of new and valuable drugs of high potentials and of interest to the Nutraceutical and Pharmaceutical industries.