Kongunadu Research Journal

Survey and documentaiton of plants from Southern Coimbatore

Rithika S — 2023-06-30

Plants in densely urbanized areas also contribute to environmental protection from several hazards like strong winds, soil and slope erosion, torrential floods, landslides. The floristic documentation was carried out in four regions of Southern Coimbatore. Out of 96, there are 77 are cultivated plants as agricultural crops, ornamental or other consumption purposes and remaining 19 are wild plants around the residing area. This present analysis indicated that documented plant species came under 43 taxonomic families. Highest number of species found in the family Cucurbitaceae (7), Apocynaceae (6) followed by Amaranthaceae, Arecaceae, Fabaceae, Poaceae each with 5 species. It is also revealed that the highest number of Herb habits (37.5%) followed by trees (20.83%) than other habits. Among which most of the plants are used for medicine and domestic consumption. Several plants have been cultivated for ornamental purposes as well. In this survey, no rare status plants have been observed in this study area. Hence it is indicating that the area is completely civilized and the land area around the residence has been anthropogenic impacted. The wild species documented in this area are herbaceous weed plants blooming at every rainy season. Hence the cultivation of trees and protection management has to be initiated to increase the green cover of the study area -Southern Coimbatore to regain the misty, moderate climate as it was one of the identity of Coimbatore. It will definitely improve the ecological services like rainfall, pure air and beauty of nature to enjoy.

Survey on the ethnomedicinal plants used by the communities around buliyar, the Nilgiri district, Tamilnadu, India

Linthiya E — 2023-06-30

An ethno medicinal survey was carried out to gather information about medicinal plants utilized by Irulas and Kurumba tribal people in the Burliyar taluk. About 50 medicinal plants species belonging to 34 families used by the tribal people for the treatment of Asthma, Burns, Diarrhea, Fertility, Fever, Jaundice, Kidney stone, Malaria, Snake bites, Wounds etc. has been identified and collected. The most representative families are Asteraceae and Solanaceae with 5 species each. The plants were found to be used in different forms such as juice, extracts, paste, powder, infusion. These ethno medicinal plants were used to treat ailments like cold, cough, headache, stomach ache, dysentery, skin diseases, poison bites, cuts and wounds and diabetes.

Radial search for accelerating block matching to detect copy-move forgery in digital photographs

Velmurugan S — 2023-06-30

One of the exciting areas of image processing research right now is image forensics. The most common kind of image forgery is copy-move (CM) forgery. In this study, a method for quickly detecting CM counterfeiting is proposed. The suggested approach speeds up the block matching process by employing the proposed radial search method. DCT features are extracted from each block and only the most "R' significant features are considered to create the feature vector which in turn shortens the processing time for feature matching. Then radix sorting is used to sort the blocks based on the DCT coefficients, and the proximity of blocks is used to indicate how similar they are. Each pair of adjacent blocks has their difference measured, and if the difference between two blocks is less than a predetermined threshold, the blocks are deemed comparable. Once a match is found, the nearby eight blocks are located using the radial search strategy, which eliminates the need for the traditional sequential block comparison. As opposed to exhaustive block matching, the radial search approach is experimented with which gives commendable improvement in copy move forgery detection.

Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants on the foothills of Palamalai hills, Coimbatore district, Tamilnadu

Balakrishnan G — 2023-06-30

Ethnobotany is a life science which studies the interaction between human beings and flora in particular and broadly deals with the investigations, observations, and identifications of botanical diversity used for the prevention and treatment of human and livestock ailments. The ethnobotanical survey resulted in the documentation of 40 medicinal plants that have been used for medicinal purposes by tribal peoples of Palamalai hills. The habitat of the plants was analysed and it is observed that shrubs were found to be dominant in the community followed by trees, herbs and climbers. The plants collected from the study area are used in the treatment of various diseases.

Ethnomedicinal plants used by the paniya tribes in Gurusimalai hills, Pandalur, Niligiri district

Sowmiya E — 2023-06-30

In the present report an attempt has been made to document the available ethno-medicinal plants and their application among Paniya tribes in Gurusimalai Hills, Pandalur, Niligiri district. Regular field trips were conducted during the months of July-November 2022. The information about the plants was recorded by means of discussion using standard questionnaire with the informers along with the field visits during the collection hours. According to the report of study, a total about 70 plant species belonging to 62 genera and 35 families for treating various kinds of ailments such as Fever, bronchitis, piles, ulcer, abdominal disorders, skin diseases, urinary discharges, snake bite, asthma, diabetes, heart diseases and weight loss. Among the parts, Root, leaves, fruits and Seeds were mainly utilized by the informants. A detailed analysis concluded that, Leaves (46 species) were the most frequently used part of a plant followed by the Fruit (15 species), Root (10 species), Seed (9 species), Whole plant parts, Flower and Bark (each 4 species), Stem (2 species) and Tuber (1 species). The most commonly used medicinal plants fell under shrub forms (25 species) followed by Herb (19 species), tree (13 species), Climber (12 species) and succulent herb (1 species). The mode of formulation preparation or administration was observed to be in the form of juice (27 species) followed by past (15 species), decoction (14 species), Powder (11 species), and vapour (3 species). The present study concluded that the native people in the study area have their unique way of utilizing medicinal plants to treat different kinds of ailments. This might pave the path for developing a scientifically validated botanical or lead to semi-synthetic derivatives intended for modern medicine.

Ethnobotanical investigation of the muthuvan tribe’s medicinal plant usage in Edavanna Panchayath, Malappuram district, Kerala

Athira — 2023-06-30

Ethnobotanical studies are always in forefront in revealing the intimate association between human beings and plants. India is widely known for its immense wealth of medicinal plants and for the fact that this plant wealth has been utilized for healing diseases since ages. Tribal societies possess their own ideologies and belief systems when it comes to the usage and protection of plants. Among many tribal communities in Kerala, Muthuvans are known for their knowledge in usage of plants for the preparation of medicine. Documentation of such knowledge is utmost important for the upcoming future. The present study is conducted with an aim to document the medicinal plants used by the Muthuvan tribe of Malappuram district, Kerala for the treatment of common ailments. Questionnaire survey, periodic field trips to the tribal area and secondary information collected from KIRTADS has been presented here. A total of 37 plants belonging to 35 genera and 20 families have been recorded along with their vernacular names, parts used, mode of preparation and administration of medicines. The commonly represented families were Fabaceae and Lamiaceae with 4 species and Asteraceae and Malvaceae with 3 species each. The current study elaborately reveals that the tribal community depends on plant wealth of Cholar Hills for the treatment of common ailments and their medicinal preparations have been effective over many years. Therefore, documentation of the knowledge possessed by the tribes is extremely important as these can be used for further studies and novel discoveries.

Phytochemical, Antioxidant potential and ftir analysis on the matured leaves of Camellia Oleifera abel

Vasini V — 2023-06-30

Phytochemicals are physiologically active compounds and are derived from plants. Majority of the phytochemicals have been known to bear therapeutic activities like antibacterial, antioxidant, antifungal, antispasmodic, anticancer, hepatoprotective etc. The aim of this study is to evaluate the phytochemicals in the matured leaves of Camellia oleifera belonging to the family Theaceae. The phytochemicals were extracted from the dried matured leaves of C. oleifera using solvent extraction method. The preliminary phytochemical analysis showed the presence of alkaloids, tannins, saponins, phenols and flavonoids in the ethanolic extract. Further the antioxidant property of the leaf extract was carried out using standard procedure. The extract was subjected to FTIR analysis. The study shows that the ethanolic extracts possess secondary metabolites and antioxidant properties that are therapeutically valuable.

Isolation of Mycotoxin producing Aspergillus Niger from soil and its application as Pesticide

Anju Alagiri — 2023-06-30

Fungi associated with mycotoxin production are found worldwide and may produce toxins in almost any food source that will support their growth. Mycotoxins are the toxic secondary metabolite of the fungus kingdom and they can cause disease and death in both humans and other animals. In this study, we isolated the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger from the soil and produced its mycotoxins. By using thin layer chromatography (TLC) the crude mycotoxins were characterized and used for testing their insecticidal and weed controller activity. The insecticidal activity tested by spraying mechanisms and pests are dead in a limited period of time and mycotoxins also showed good herbicide activity in selected weeds. The outcome of the present study demonstrates that extracted mycotoxins from Aspergillus niger can be used as a pesticide in agricultural fields.

Endangered medicinal plants of western ghats: A review

Malavika J — 2023-06-30

India houses about more than a thousand known medicinal plant species. Traditional Indian medicine, also known as Ayurveda, relies heavily on the use of medicinal plants for treating various ailments. They play a major role in our daily lives. The Western Ghats region in India is known for its rich biodiversity resources including a wide variety of medicinal plants. Western Ghats is among the world’s hottest 10 biodiversity hotspots and recently has been added to the world heritage list by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). But as these days most of the important medicinal plants present in Western Ghats are facing serious extinction issues and categorized as endangered plants by IUCN due to overexploitation, deforestation and similar anthropogenic activities. At the same time these IUCN reports on threat status highlights the importance of conserving these assets of nature for the betterment of future generations. This article comprehensively reviews the details about some important medicinal plants and their medicinal uses present in Western Ghats which are classified under endangered category.