Abstract
<p>Myrmecophyte is a common medicinal plant used by local people in Indonesia for treating various diseases especially in Papua. Bengkulu province is one of the myrmecophyte habitats, but there has no report on its identity and distribution. The objectives of this research were to identify the diversity and analyze the myrmecophytes distribution as well as factor affecting its presence. This study used purposive sampling method by exploring the area where myrmecophytes commonly found. The myrmecophyte distribution was analyzed using <em>Morishita</em> index and <em>Arcgis</em> 10.1, and the autecological analysis of abiotic factors was performed using <em>Principal Component Analysis</em> (PCA) generated from Minitab 16. The results of this research showed that there were two species of myrmecophytes in Bengkulu province, namely <em>Hydnophytum formicarum</em> and <em>Myrmecodia tuberosa</em>, as well as two variants of <em>M. tuberosa</em> i.e. <em>M. tuberosa</em> 'armata’ and <em>M. tuberosa</em> 'siberutensis'. The distribution of myrmecophytes was mostly randomly scattered in Central Bengkulu regency, Seluma, North Bengkulu, South Bengkulu, and Kaur. Their distributions were affected by light intensity and temperature. The data of this research can be used as basic information for carried out conservation efforts in Bengkulu province. The abundance of myrmecophytes is also used as a source of additional income for local people in Bengkulu province. </p>
Highlights
Traditional treatment plant-based materials have been widely used by Indonesian people
The species of M. tuberosa are consisted of two variants i.e. M. tuberosa ‘armata’ and M. tuberosa ‘siberutensis’
Myrmecophytes found in Bengkulu Province were H. formicarum, M. tuberosa and two variants of M. tuberosa namely M. tuberosa ‘armata’ and M. tuberosa ‘siberutensis’
Summary
Traditional treatment plant-based materials have been widely used by Indonesian people. Tuber, stem, bark, leaves, and fruit are part of plants used for medicine. It is called Myrmecophyte because the inner part of its tuber is inhabited by ants and serves as their nest. Five genera have tuber i.e. Anthorrhiza, Myrmecodia, Hydnophytum, Myrmephytum, and Squamellaria (Huxley & Jebb, 1991). The tuber, its caudex, comes from the swollen hypocotyl formed a network of death tissues among the tubers cavities caused by phellogen (tissue cork) that developed between parenchyma cells (Huxley & Jebb, 1991). Many Indonesian people used the tuber for medicine. Myrmecophytes used as medicine belong to Hydnophytum and Myrmecodia genera. Phytochemical analysis showed that Myrmecophyte tubers contain of flavonoids and tannins which have the properties of antiproliferative (Senawong et al, 2013), anticancer (Abdullah et al, 2010), antimicrobe (Ahmad et al, 2010), antioxidant (Dirgantara et al, 2013), antiinflammation, antiparasite, antimalarial, and antifungal (Musman et al, 2015)
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