Why are Plants So Useful to Us?
Published by Man and other animals are greatly indebted to plants for the oxygen and nutrition they provided. Green plants purify the atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide from it and releasing from their bodies an almost equals volume of pure oxygen during the process of photosynthesis.
Plants prepare food such as starch which we derive from rice, wheat and potato. Pulses and lentils like black gram, green gram and peas provide us with valuable proteins. Leafy vegetables like cabbage, lettuce and spinach are rich in vitamins. Fruits also provide us with precious vitamins. We get edible oil from the coconut, mustard, groundnut and sesame. Coconut and ground nut oil is also used in the manufacture of soap and shampoo. We derive sugar from sugarcane for our sweet food preparations.
Plants like grass provide nutritious fodder for our cattle. Trees give us useful timber for building houses, boats and bridges. Wood is also used for furniture, railway sleepers and firewood.
The cotton plant provides man with fibres which can be spun into yarn and woven into cloth. The jute plants fibres are used for making bags, carpets and even coarse cloth. Coir, the husk fibre of the coconut is used for making ropes, mats, brushes and for stuffing mattresses and seats.
Our forests abound in medicinal herbs, plants and trees. Quinine an effective remedy for malaria is extracted from the bark of the cinchona. The wonder drug, penicillin, is derived from the soil fungus. The sand wood tree yields an oil which his used for curing fever, vomiting and cooling the body. Garlic is an effective remedy for digestive problems and rheumatic and muscular pains.
Plants also provide man with beverages like tea, coffee and cocoa and spices like cardamom, pepper and cloves. Rubber is also another important thing we get from the trees.
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