Scientists from the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) develop studies on the proliferation of medicinal plants to promote their properties and their use as well as the possibility that rural communities market them.
Aida Maria Osuna Fernandez, researcher at UAM – Xochimilco Unit, revealed that the laboratory of Plant Biology promotes research on the use of medicinal plants, as well as their sexual and asexual propagation, because in Mexico there are still no cultivation strategies for medicinal plants and trees.
“Only Mexican species such as chamomile remain, but no other cultivated during the Spanish conquest, which were brought from Europe to the country further enriching our natural resources,” she said.
Osuna Fernandez said that according to the characteristics of each species, the laboratory conducts tests of germination, seed characterization, plant propagation and growth.
She said the preservation of some of these plants is complex. Such is the case of the tree Talauma Mexicana, popular to fight heart disease, which is in danger of disappearing along with the cloud forest, unique ecosystem in which it growths.
Given this situation, the laboratory of Plant Biology opened a plant nursery in Zongolica, Veracruz, to promote the spread of the Mexican Talauma in collaboration with Reyna Osuna, researcher at the Faculty of Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), who guarded 700 species of plants along six years.
Maria Osuna Fernandez added that many species of medicinal plants disappeared and others are endangered due to uncontrolled harvesting, such as Pegahueso, a tree which bark is used to treat fractures and grows without much care. However, its constant logging in Guerrero endangers it, since this tree is used as a living fence.
In an UNAM’s statement, it was informed that the work from the Laboratory of Plant Biology will be presented at the First Central American Congress on Medicinal Natural Products to be held in the Galileo University, Guatemala, from 20 to 23 April.
Source: Notimex
