Economic and biological importance of bryophyta- direct and indirect use, medicinal use, etc

1. JAI NARAIN VYAS UNIVERSITY, JODHPUR
DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY
PAPER: BOT-104
TOPIC – ECONOMIC AND BIOLOGICAL
IMPORTANCE OF BRYOPHYTA
Submitted To: Submitted By:
Dr. Ashok Kumar Patel Anmol Mertiya
Msc. Previous(1-sem.)

2. Economic Importance of Bryophyta
•Bryophyta has shown its economic importance
since stone age when pre-historic man had made
uses of feather moss (Neckera crispa).
•Economic importance of Bryophytes are
summarized into two categories: -
• A. Direct use of Bryophytes.
• B. Indirect use of Bryophytes.

3. Direct use of Bryophytes
1. Uses of Suphagnum and the peat
2. Medicinal uses of Bryophytes
4. Use as pollution indicators
5. Bryophytes as a source of food
6. Use of Bryophytes in experimental Botany
7. Uses of Bryophytes as indicator plants

4. Indirect Use of Bryophytes
1. Soil Conservation
2. Formation of soil
3. Role as rock builders
4. Bog succession

5. Uses of Suphagnum and the peat
Sphagnum- belongs to Bryopsida.
• commonly called peat moss or bog moss
• plants have capability to withhold water two hundred times more than
their own weight.
The peat has much economic value such as –
1. Dried peat is cut into pieces and used as fuel.
2. Peat is mixed in clayey soil to keep it porous and mixed in sandy soil to
improve its water holding capacity.
3. Due to great absorptive power and antiseptic properties, sphagnum are
used as gauze for dressing wounds.
4. Many chemical products such as alcohol, ammonium sulphate, peat tar,
paraffin, nitrates, brown dye, tanning materials, etc., are obtained from
peat.
5. Peat is used as mattress filler and bedding material for domestic animals.

6. Domestic fuel peat gauze for dressing wounds
Bedding material for cattle

7. Medicinal uses of Bryophytes
• Marchantia polymorpha - cures
pulmonary tuberculosis and afflictions
of the liver.
• Marchantia polymorpha, M. Stellata
&Polytrichum commune -has anti-
tumour properties.
• boiling dried Sphagnum - used in the
treatment of haemorrhage and eye
diseases.
• Tea prepared from Polytrichum
commune is used to dissolve kidney
and gall bladder stones.
• distillate of peat tar(Sphagnol) - used
in the treatment of skin diseases.
• mosses are used in the preparation of
an ointment for cuts, bums and
wounds

8. Sphagnum dressings were first used on a large scale during
the Russo-Japanese war (1904- 1905).
advantages of Sphagnum dressings over cotton
• They absorbed 16-20 times their own dry weight
of liquid, whereas cotton dressings could only
absorb 4-6 times.
• They were cool and soothing because the moss is
porous a dressing was found to be comparatively
dry for 24 hours after an operation in cases
where the wound had bled quite freely.
• The dressing could be left on for up to 2-3 days
which is much longer than cotton dressings.
• Sphagnum itself has mild antiseptic properties
not possessed by cotton.

9. USE AS POLLUTION INDICATORS
• Dried mosses have property to absorb metals and therefore, used
to detect the presence of heavy metal cations in their surroundings.

11. UV-B Radiation
• The moss Bryum argenteum is being used to monitor
the thickness of the ozone layer over Antarctica.

12. BRYOPHYTES AS A SOURCE OF FOOD
• Peat moss - famine food in China
• capsule of moor inhabiting mosses- favourite food of the
red grouse chicks.
• Barbella pendula -has a high content of vitamin B12

13. Bryophytes In Experimental Botany
• plays an important role as research tools in fields such as genetics,
experimental morphology and physiology.
• The mechanism of sex determination in plants was discovered for
the first time in a liverwort Sphaerocarpos.
LIVERWORTS Sphaerocarpos

14. Uses of Bryophytes as indicator plants
• Leucobryum, Polytrichum, Rhacomitrium - indicate acidity of soil.
• Tortell tortusa , Neckera crispa - indicate the basicity of soil.
Polytrichum sp. Neckera crispa

15. SOIL CONSERVATION
• It prevent the erosion of soil.
• Moss stems and underground rhizoids bind the soil particles
together to a considerable depth (6-8 inches).
• Mosses like polytrichum, atrichum and ceratodon are grown
to Prevent soil erosion around apples and pears.

16. FORMATION OF SOIL
• Lichens are the pioneers to grow
on barren rocks.
• They secrete some acids and
cause weathering so that a thin
layer of humus is formed over the
rocky surface.
• Mosses grow on this surface and
cover whole area.
• The dust particles accumulate
between the erect moss stem and
a soil layer is formed, which
favours small herbs to grow on it.
• Later the herb stage is succeeded
by shrubs and trees.

17. ROLE AS ROCK BUILDERS
• mosses (Bryum, Hypnum) grow in
association with other aquatic plants
(Chara and other algae) playing an
important role as rock builders.
• These plants grow in water bodies which
contain a large amount of calcium
bicarbonate.
• The insoluble calcium carbonate
precipitates.
• The insoluble minerals, on exposure,
hardens forming Calcareous (lime) rock-
like deposits around these plants.
• These deposits are extensively used as a
building stone.

18. As Construction Material
• aquatic moss Fontinalis antipyretics is used for filling spaces between the chimney
and walls to prevent fires.
• In Alaska, chinking of wooden and log cabins is done using bryophytes.
• In northern Europe Sphagnum is stuffed between timber used in houses to deaden
the sound.
• construction materials like "peat crete", "peat wood", and "peat foam" made from
Sphagnum for solidification and strengthening.

19. MOSS INDUSTRY

20. USE AS DECORATIVE MATERIAL
• It is used in shop window displays, as green carpets for
floral exhibitions, for making moss roses, for decorating
hats.

22. AS PACKING MATERIAL
• Moist Sphagnum is used for packing live frogs, snakes,
lizards, worms and some insects for shipment.
• Nurserymen wet Sphagnum for supplying live plants and
also for shipment of vegetables, cacti, ferns and other
delicate plants.

23. USES OF BRYOPHYTES IN HORTICULTURE

24. BRYOPHYTES AND RESEARCH WORK
• Discovery of chromosomes
 Sex chromosomes were first identified in plants in 1917 in the liverwort Sphaerocarpos
donnellii.
• Alternation of Generations
 Alternation of generations was observes in Sphagnum for first time.
• Artificial Production of Polyploids
 In 1911 E. Marchal and E. Marchal demonstrated the artificial production of polyploids in plants
by culturing mosses.
• Discovery of Heterochromatin
 Heterochromatin was discovered in the nucleus of plants by using mosses.
• Hormones
 It has been observed that bryophytes also contain hormones such as auxin, cytokinins, ethylene
and abscisic acid.

25. USE IN BIOTECHNOLOGY
• Transgenic Physcomitrella are now being used to produce ‘blood
clotting factor IX’ for treatment of haemophilia’B and other proteins.

26. FOOD AND SHELTER

27. USED AS PESTICIDES
•When tracheophytes are stored in an
herbarium, moth balls can provide protection
from beetle infestation.