FUNDAMENTALS OF BOTANY

Lesson 9: Economic Uses of Plant︱ BIO13 ︱December 24, 2022

By Franchez Cassandra B. Escander

USE OF PLANTS IN EVERYDAY LIFE ➢ Cashewnut (Anacardium

occidentale)
• Plants – play a very crucial role in
➢ Almond (Prumus amygdalus)
human lives and help all living
➢ Coconut (Cocos nucifera)
organisms to survive
• Vegetables
➢ Shelter
1. Vegetables
➢ Food
➢ Potato (Solanum tuberosum)
➢ Medicines
➢ Tomato (Lycopersicon
➢ Other materials
lycopersicum)
PLANT AS FOOD ➢ brinjal/eggplant (Solanum
melongena)
• Plants provide food and supply ➢ gourd (Lagenaria siceraria)
nutrients to nearly all terrestrial ➢ pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima)
organism ➢ bitter gourd (Momordica
• Cereals and Millets charantea)
1. Cereals (6 major types): • fruits
➢ Rice (Oryza sativa) 1. Tropical fruits
➢ Wheat (Triticum aestivum) ➢ Mango (Mangifera indica)
➢ Maize (Zea mays) ➢ banana (Musa sapientum),
➢ Barley (Hordeum vulgare) ➢ litchi (Litchi chinensis),
➢ Oat (Avena sativa) ➢ orange (Citrus sinensis)
➢ Rye (Secale cereale) ➢ guava (Psidium guajava)
2. Millets: ➢ papaya (Carica papaya)
➢ Sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) ➢ pineapple (Ananas comosus)
➢ Pearl millet (Pennisetum 2. Temperate fruits
glaucum) ➢ Apple (Malus pumila),
➢ Finger millet (Eleusine ➢ pear (Pyrus communis)
coracana) ➢ peach (Prunus persica),
➢ Italian millet (Setaria italica) ➢ strawberry (Fragaria indica),
• Legumes and Nuts/Drupes ➢ grape (Vitis vinifera)
1. Legumes (Pulse):
➢ Lentil (Lens culinaris) INDUSTRIAL USES
➢ Golden gram (Vigna radiata)
• rubber and its products – tires and
➢ Gram (Cicer arietinum)
tubes for automobiles and cycles
➢ Black gram (Vigna mungo)
➢ Euphorbiaceae
➢ Pea (Pisum sativum)
➢ Moraceae
➢ Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan)
➢ Apocynaceae
2. Nuts/drupes:
➢ Hevea breasilensis
➢ Chestnut (Castanea sativa)
• Fibres and fibre yielding plants – types:
➢ Peanut (Arachis hypogaea)
I. Textiles
II. Brush
 FUNDAMENTALS OF BOTANY
Lesson 9: Economic Uses of Plant︱ BIO13 ︱December 24, 2022
By Franchez Cassandra B. Escander

III. Filling ➢ Tannins – organic compounds

IV. Rough weaving and mainly glucosidal in nature
V. Natural fabrics ➢ Natural dyes – are stains
VI. Papermaking obtained from roots, leaves,
➢ Malvaceae bark, fruit or wood of different
➢ Tiliaceae species
➢ Linaceae • Paper and pulp
➢ Bombacaceae ➢ Paper – cellulose product and
➢ Aracaceae one of the important use of
➢ Musacaeae cellulose in the manufacture of
• Oil (Essential & Fatty Oils) paper, can be made from any
1. Essential oil – evaporate in contact natural fibrous material
with air • Wood and cork
➢ Rose oil ➢ Wood – used for house building,
➢ Citrus oil furniture, board making, bridge
➢ Lemongrass oil construction, paper, fuel, etc.
➢ Jasmine oil ➢ Cork – used for many purposes:
2. Fatty oil – drying oil, semi-drying viz, hats, mats, tiles, gaskets,
oil, drying oil, vegetable fat inner soles for shoes etc.
➢ Linseed oil
➢ Soybean oil MEDICINAL PLANTS AND DRUGS
➢ Corn oil • Medicinal plant - any plant which in
➢ Olive oil one or more of its organs, contains
• Sugar and starch substances that can be used for
1. Sucrose or cane sugar – most therapeutic purposes or which is a
important complex sugar precursor for the synthesis of useful
2. Starch – complex carbohydrate drugs
➢ Wheat ➢ 21,000 medicinal plants – WHO
➢ Barley listed how many medicinal
➢ Maize plants worldwide
➢ Potato ➢ 1,000 medicinal plant species –
• Gums and Resins – colloidal in nature; in Bangladesh, there is
contain a large amount of sugar approximately how many
1. Best gum – Arabic of commerce medicinal plant species
obtained from Acacia senegal • Fumitories and Masticatories
2. Resins – are yellowish solids, ➢ From time immemorial the
insoluble in water but soluble in human beings all over the
alcohol, turpentine, and spirit world have smoked or chewed
• Pectin – are fruit jellies, readily soluble various substances for
in water and can be used as food pleasures
• Tannins and Dyes
 FUNDAMENTALS OF BOTANY
Lesson 9: Economic Uses of Plant︱ BIO13 ︱December 24, 2022
By Franchez Cassandra B. Escander

➢ Fumitories – substances used - Volvaria dysplasia

for smoking
➢ Masticatories – substances
used for chewing
➢ In the Indian subcontinent,
particularly in India and
Bangladesh, very commonly
used fumitory and masticatory
are:
- Tobacco (Nicotiana
tabacum) - fumitory
- Betel leaf (Piper betle =
nganga in Filipino)
• Alkaloids – vegetable bases containing
nitrogen, and they are supposed to be
decomposition products of proteins
➢ Have a marked physiological
effect on animals, and,
therefore, they are of much
value in medicine and drugs
➢ Examples include:
- Caffeine
- Theobromine
• Glucosides – similar to alkaloids, but
they are derived from carbohydrates
and not from proteins
- Commonly used in the
manufacture of medicine
and drugs for human beings
- Lycoperdon bovisia
➢ Fungi, like yeasts – are
responsible for fermentation
➢ Penicillium – source of
Penicillin
➢ Ergotine – a drug that is
obtained from Claviceps
purpurea
• Algae
➢ Seaweeds (marine algae) –
richest source of vitamins
- Vitamins A, M, & E – found in
abundance in seaweeds
- Important foodstuffs like:
▪ Suimono
▪ Mitsu
▪ Dulse
• Lichen – used as food and animal feed,
dyes, and a source of fermentable
sugars for the production of ethyl
alcohol, has medicinal properties

FOOD ADJUNCTS

• These include:
- Spice and condiments
- Vitamins
- Non-alcoholic beverages
- Alcoholic beverages

LOWER PLANTS IN ECONOMIC BOTANY

• Fungi
➢ Edible fungi:
- Agaricus campestris