A team of Scientists, led by its Chief
Coordinator, Dr. P. Pushpangadan, was working on the All India
Coordinated Research Project on Ethnobiology (AICRPE). This
is a project founded in 1982 by the Ministry of Environment
and Forests for the purpose of studying tribal life and preserving
their rich heritage and knowledge. One aspect of the Project
was to document tribal medicines and remedies, and to establish
their scientific basis.
In
December 1987, while trekking through the tropical forests
of Agasthyar Hills in connection with the survey of the Kani
tribal settlements, Dr. Pushpangadan and the AICRPE team members
became exhausted. They were accompanied by a few Kani tribesmen
as guides, who surprisingly remained energetic and agile.
The Kanis were observed to munch on some small blackish fruits.
One young guide offered a few of these fruits to the team,
stating that if they eat these, they can go on trekking without
fatigue. Upon chewing the fruits, to their surprise, the AICRPE
team felt a sudden flush of energy and strength.
One
can imagine the instant interest the team members had. Immediately
they asked the Kanis to identify the plant these mysterious
fruits came from. The Kanis refused. The plant was sacred
to the Kani culture, and they were not willing to offer it
to the rest of the world. The team members persisted and after
some persuasion the Kanis presented the team with the arogyappacha
plant. The plant was subsequently identified as Trichopus
zeylanicus subsp. Travancorius. |
