Tubers : Valuable food from the Biodiversity for future.

Sanjeet Kumar

Department of Life science, regional Institute of Education, Bhubaneswar

Tubers are various types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients.  Tubers are basically swollen, underground plant parts that store food. They are used by plants to survive the winter or dry months and provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season and they are a means of asexual reproduction. There are both stem and root tubers.

Economic value of tubers

                                The tremendous importance of roots and tubers as a source of income for poor farmers and of food overlooked in the debate improving food security and eradicating poverty in developing countries( Gregory J.Scott et al. 2000, vii.)

Medicinal value of tubers

                                  The tubers of wild plants are highly acrid and cause irritation in throat and mouth due to excessive amount of calcium oxalate present in the tubers. The tubers are anodyne, anti-inflammatory, antihaemorrhoidal, haemostatic, expectorant, carminative, digestive, appetizer, stomachic, antihelmintic, liver tonic, aphrodisiac, emmenogogue, rejuvenating and tonic. They are traditionally used in arthralgia, elephantiasis, tumers, inflammations, hemorrhoids, hemorrhages, vomiting, cough, bronchitis, asthma, anorexia, dyspepsia, flatulence, colic, constipation, helminthiasis hepatopathy, Also the tubers are reported to have antiprotease activity, analgesic activity, cytotoxic activity and CNS depressants activity( Yadu nandan Dey and Ajoy Kumar ghosh, 2010.)

                                     Many plants are known to have beneficial therapeutic effects as noted in the traditional Indian system of medicine, Ayurveda. The effects of plant extract on bacteria have been studied by a very large number of researchers in different parts of the world. Much work has been done on ethnomedicinal plants in India. Interest in a large number of traditional natural products has increased. It has been suggested that aqueous and ethanolic extracts from plants used in allopathic medicine are potential sources of antiviral, antitumoral and antimicrobial agents (R.Nair, et al., 2005). According to World Health Report of infectious diseases 2000, overcoming antibiotic resistance is the major issue of the WHO for the next millennium. Hence the last decade witnessed an increase in the investigations of plants as a source of human disease management.

Sanjeet Kumar