Mucilaginous plants and their uses in medicine

Throughout the world but especially in the tropical and subtropical zones, there are succulent and non-succulent plants which harbor readily releasable mucilage in their tissues, on the surface of their seeds or in their bark. This mucilage may have diverse practical uses. Among these, it functions as a healing agent, casually or in the practice of traditional-folk or conventional medicine. The mucilage of some of these plants is well known to science and has been studied by pharmacologists and found to possess biologically active principles. However, they all have in common a beneficial effect on burns, wounds, ulcers, external and internal inflammations and irritations, diarrhea and dysentery. This paper presents examples of such plants belonging to 19 botanical families, with a view to calling attention to the similar uses of easily extracted plant mucilages and, particularly, their ability to provide protection from fire, a feature which has already been demonstrated in Australia.