From medical treatments to walls of earth and moss: the new projects of the Institute of Botany

One year after being subsidized by the Institute of Botany of For Nature (PLN), five researchers disclosed the results and updates of their projects, with which they seek to contribute to making this discipline an integral part of human events in its different dimensions.

The projects covered areas as diverse as the use of botany in medicine, ethnobotany with the documentation and rescue of the use of traditional plants, botanical archeology, the stimulation of community projects, and the mixture of botany and architecture.

“From this blindness about our flora in Puerto Rico, this Institute (of Botany) emerged in 2021, which seeks promote and make known other values ​​that we know are there, but that we have to give voice to. We have to give relevance to the flora of Puerto Rico“, said Elizabeth Padillamanager of Sciences, Education and Volunteers at PLN.

In total, PLN received 47 research proposals, of which only five were subsidized, in November of last year, under the following criteria: experience, multidisciplinary approach, innovation, planning and budget effectiveness. Each received a maximum of $5,000.

Elizabeth Padilla, Manager of Science, Education and Volunteers at Para la Naturaleza. (Carlos Rivera Giusti)

The projects that completed the cycle were “Evaluation of extracts of plant species Kalanchoe on the viability of myeloid-derived suppressor cells in cancer. Kevin Alicea Torres; “Rural flora: the botany of living walls”, by Fabiola Guzman Rivera; “Orchard City of the East”, by Ileana Rodríguez Vélez; “Phytoliths of modern soils as an auxiliary method for paleoenvironmental reconstruction in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean”, by Lara Sanchez Morales; and “Tramil Medicinal Botanical Garden”, by Jannette Gavillán Suárez.

“The flora produces fruits, oxygen, water… And what else? Health medicine, wellness, beauty. So “These investigations are a promise of everything that can be done.”highlighted Padilla.

After the cancer cure

In order to replace chemotherapy as a treatment against cancerscientists from the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao (UPR-H) discovered the possibility of a new treatment with the plant leaf Kalanchoeshared Alicea Torres, principal investigator of the project.

“We hope that it will be possible to put an end to what is chemotherapy and, eventually, combine what is immunotherapy with medicinal plants to have a better effect and, at the same time, have fewer side effects,” he stressed.

According to preliminary conclusions, the plant reduced the viability and led to the death of cancer cellsso Alicea Torres qualified her as a candidate for cancer treatment.

“(Rodríguez Vélez, professor at the UPR-H) had found certain characteristics of these plants Kalanchoe that have antibiotic effects, and I asked him the question: ‘what if we evaluate this in some cells that I study, that we want to eliminate, to have a better response against this disease (cancer)?'”, said the assistant professor of the Department of Biology.

Alicea Torres described the “Kalanchoe” plant as a candidate for cancer treatment.
Alicea Torres described the “Kalanchoe” plant as a candidate for cancer treatment. (Vanessa Serra Díaz)

He illustrated, in passing, that More than 50% of medicines today come from plants, microbes and other sources in nature.

“In terms of experimental design, we take the leaves of these plants, store them, filter them, centrifuge, filter and form these aqueous extracts, which we apply to the different cell cultures. In these cell cultures, we prepare those cells that we grow in the laboratory and we stimulate them, so that they have those immunosuppressive functions in a culture dish, and to that dish we apply the plant extracts in different concentrations,” he explained about the procedure of the investigation.

In the future, he highlighted, the intention is to apply to the treatment of animals and humans in the UPR Medical Sciences Campus.

Gardens for community health

With a view to promoting sustainability and contributing to the health of a multigenerational group in the San Salvador sector, in Caguasthe San Salvador Ecological Garden (JESS) created a garden with plants that serve as remedies to the health problems that afflict the community.

According to JESS statistics, The garden has specific plants to alleviate more than 50 health problems.

“A survey was carried out and, then, we identified health problems, such as arthritis, palpitations, anxiety,” he explained, representing Gavillán Suárez, Margara Reyes Lópezmember of the Board of Directors of the TRAMIL Puerto Rico organization.

The San Salvador garden has specific plants to alleviate more than 50 health problems.
The San Salvador garden has specific plants to alleviate more than 50 health problems.
(Supplied)

Reyes López said that the entity interviewed 80 people who identified their health problems and the plants they used to treat them.

“There are 12 geometric figures, which are classified according to anatomical systems, so that one structure is dedicated to the respiratory system; another, to the nervous system. So, the idea is that each person, according to what they identify (as a health problem), will go to that structure for healing.”elaborated on the structure of the garden and its functionality.

Likewise, the JESS offers workshops and education to the community about the usefulness of the garden and how to create remedies for health problems with plants, he indicated.

They excavate the environmental past

To contribute to knowledge about past cultures, their relationship with the environment and the use they gave to the plants, Sánchez Morales, from the Department of Anthropology of the New York Universityinvestigates botanical remains in Puerto Rico through environmental archeology.

“Humans in Puerto Rico have been transforming our landscapes and, possibly above all, our vegetation for almost 6,000 years, through forest fires, the use of native plants, the introduction of exotic plants and the construction of settlements and tools for daily life”he indicated.

He explained that his study seeks a better understanding of the environmental and vegetative past in the country through the extraction of phytoliths (microscopic remains of plants). With the samples, the researcher compared them with observations of the current environment from which they were collected.

As part of the research, soil samples were extracted at a depth of 15 centimeters, under different types of vegetation, to compare the phytoliths with the flora observed at the site.
As part of the research, soil samples were extracted at a depth of 15 centimeters, under different types of vegetation, to compare the phytoliths with the flora observed at the site. (Supplied)

“We, environmental archaeologists who specialize in this type of tool, as well as paleontologists, go to these ancient soils where they are deposited and extract the phytoliths to reconstruct approximately what type of vegetation we had in those areas, at certain times in the past,” he explained.

The research consisted of extracting various soil samples 15 centimeters deep, under different types of vegetation, to compare the phytoliths with the flora observed in the place. The spaces chosen for sampling were dry forest, rainforest, plain and coastal wetlands, prairie and scrubland.

Currently, Sánchez Morales is developing a collection of phytoliths to serve as a database for future research.

New life in Humacao

The “Ciudad Huerto del Este” initiative arose with the purpose of rebuilding the UPR-H orchard, devastated by the Hurricane Maria in 2017, and convert it into an educational, research and entrepreneurship center.

Rodríguez Vélez, a professor and organic chemist on campus, said that the motivation to reestablish the space arose after new ethnobotany classes were designed. In the past, it had 80 medicinal plants, he explained.

“They had been carrying out the class for about three years without the students being able to visit the ethnobotanical garden when, at the beginning, it was a paradise to take those students, talk to them about the plants in the same garden next to the maguey. I would go and read a piece of a book Maria Benedettione of the most important exponents of ethnobotany here in Puerto Rico,” he said.

He explained that the project – now in design – will consist of a spiral and flower-shaped garden, and one of the objectives is for the student associations to be in charge of growing beds and maintain the space.

They intertwine architecture and nature

Guzmán Rivera mixed landscape architecture and urban planning, building walls of compacted earth and adding plants with small roots, such as moss, as an alternative to cement.

The architect stated that the construction sector is responsible for 39% of greenhouse gas emissions. carbon dioxideof which 11% comes from materials such as cement and steel. “Cement, as the main component of concrete, is particularly emissions-intensive due to the high energy requirements of the calcination process and the chemical reactions involved”he explained.

The presentation of results took place at the Ramón Power y Giralt House, in Old San Juan.
The presentation of results took place at the Ramón Power y Giralt House, in Old San Juan. (Carlos Rivera Giusti)

“There is a part that did work, like the hypothesis worked, but there is another part that I did not expect, and that was wear and tear. So, at a structural level, it is bad news because I have to look for an option where I can continue making walls with plants, but that wall, at a structural level, does not fail me,” he added about the challenges of his project.

He illustrated that by exposing the walls directly to the elements of nature, the materials became worn. He pointed out, however, the possibility of using other materials as protective layers, which reduce exposure to the elements and, therefore, wear.

On the other hand, the plants incorporated into the structures contributed to the cooling of the earth walls.