Jayawijaya region rich in medicinal plants
Antara News, Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA News) - Located at an altitude of 1,900 meters above sea level, Jayawijaya district in Papua province is rich in medicinal plants.
The plants have for thousands of years been known by the Dani tribe in Baliem Valley as effective cures for various kinds of disease.
A lecturer at Santo Thomas Aquinas Agricultural Science College (STIPER). Yunus Paelo, said here on Tuesday a lot of plants in the mountains of Jayawijaya district had medicinal properties that could be developed for the local people`s welfare.
"The Dani ethnic community`s knowledge about the medicinal plants is in line with cultural development in the realm of medication," Yunus said, adding that many of the medicinal plants were endemic and only grew in the Jayawijaya mountain region.
He said among the medicinal plants growing in the region were Rhododendron macgregoriae which is effective to fight bacteria , Myrmecodia aureospinosa that can cure cancer and other diseases, and Pandanus conoideus which is popularly known as red fruit.
About the red fruit, Yunus said each fruit contains 35.9 percent of oil with 79.9 percent of oleic acid, 19.6 percent of palmitoleat acid, and 0.48 percent of stearat acid.
According to him, there were more than 70 kinds of medicinal plants with 62 genera and 37 families in the district.
Most of them were being cultivated by the local people and the rest was still growing in the wild such as Mucuna pruriens for Parkinson;s disease, Solanum nigrum for digestive problems, Rhododendron macgregoriae to fight bacteria, and many more.
Yunus expressed hope that the medicinal plants in Jayawijaya could be conserved, developed, and introduced to the public at large at home and abroad.
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