Insight Into Pharmaceutical Importance of Bryophytes

Abstract

Historically, Bryophytes were accounted to be a monophyletic group and were placed in an inclusive Bryophyta. Some species are aquatic though some can adapt and live in arid regions. Bryophytes size ranges from microscopic to 12 inches in length, the average size is between 0.5 – 2 inches long and colors vary from green to black and sometimes colorless. Bryophytes plays a vital role in the biosphere even their size is insignificant. As a biotic factor in the environment, they provide food for numerous herbivorous birds and animals. They prevent soil erosion by carpeting the soil. Bryophytes cause the outer portion of rock to slowly crumble as they grow with lichens on rock surfaces. And because of it they contribute and help to soil formation. When mixed with the soil, bryophytes increase the water-holding capacity of the soil and the amount of organic matter in the soil. Some bryophytes like sphagnum or peat moss has some economicimportance. It is used as packing material for breakable or fragile objects such as figurines and dinnerware’s. It is also used as packing materials for transporting plants and plant parts, since sphagnum holds water and hence prevent plants from drying during transport. As a whole, bryophytes are of little economic importance to man.

Actividad Antioxidante De Los Musgos Breutelia subdisticha, Leptodontium viticulosoides y Pylaisia falcata

“…Estos se han descuidado durante mucho tiempo, porque los musgos son generalmente pequeños y difíciles de recolectar, siendo difícil la recolección de una especie particular en altas cantidades sin poner en peligro las poblaciones naturales; además, el muestreo puede causar que se entremezclen otras especies en las muestras. Por lo tanto, solo un pequeño porcentaje de taxones ha sido analizado desde el punto de vista fitoquímico [29,30,32,33].…”

“…De ese modo, a los musgos se confieren actividades antifúngicas, antivirales, antibacterianas, citotóxicas, antiinflamatorias [22,23,43,[47][48][49][50][51] y actividades anticancerígenas y antitumorales [25,30,[52][53][54]. Adicionalmente, los musgos disponen de una actividad antioxidante [23,32,[55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66], la cual se ve influenciada en algunos casos debido a distintos tipos de estrés fisiológico, ya sea por adquisición de metales pesados, desecación, choque térmico, radiación, o salinidad [24,[67][68][69].…”