4.2 Useful plant parts
How can we use plant parts?
Plant parts can be useful to human beings and animals in many ways. Some parts can be used for more than one purpose. Let us see how plant parts are useful.
Roots
Medicine
The roots of some plants, such as ginseng or giner, are boiled to extract their medicinal properties. The flowers of the camonile plant and leaves of the peppermint plant can also provide medicine.
Plants that are used as medicine are called medictinal plants. They are usually herbaceous in nature.
(Ginseng roots are usually boiled to extract their medicinal properties.)
Soil protectors and fertilisers
The roots of plants hold on to soil, protecting the soil and preventing soil erosion.
The roots of some plants, such as the soya bean and peanut, can also act as fertilisers. They produce substances that make the sail fertile. In addition, dead plant parts break down into substances that fertilise the soil.