What are medicinal plants
and what are the issues?
What are medicinal plants?
Plants form the main ingredients of medicines in traditional systems of healing and have been the source of inspiration for several major pharmaceutical drugs. Roughly 50,000 species of higher plants (about 1 in 6 of all species) have been used medicinally. This represents by far the biggest use of the natural world in terms of number of species.
Prunus africana in montane Africa
©Alan Hamilton
Most species are used only in folk medicine, traditional systems of formal medicine using relatively few (e.g. 500-600 commonly in Traditionally Chinese Medicine). Around 100 plant species have contributed significantly to modern drugs. The use of medicinal plants is increasing worldwide, related to the persistence and sometimes expansion of traditional medicine and a growing interest in herbal treatments.
The medicinal uses of plants grade into their uses for other purposes, as for food, cleaning, personal care and perfumery. Plants are used in medicine to maintain and augment health - physically, mentally and spiritually - as well as to treat specific conditions and ailments.
What are their issues?
A focus on medicinal plants goes to the heart of some major questions of conservation and the use of biological diversity. Conservation and livelihoods are closely linked with medicinal plants. If conserved, medicinal plants will continue to be available to provide continuing benefits for healthcare, income and support of cultural heritage.
The conservation issues include:
- How can species and their genetic diversity be conserved?
- How can sustainability be assured in cases of both wild collection and cultivation?
- How can people's interest in medicinal plants serve as a motivator for conservation of habitats and their species?
- How can the health benefits of medicinal plants best be made available at local, national and international levels?
- How should the responsibilities, benefits and costs of managing and exploiting these resources be distributed?
Click here for a review paper on the conservation and livelihood issues(pdf 240kb).
Click here for a discussion paper on resource assessment for sustainable harvesting of medicinal plants (pdf 240kb).
Review paper on sustainable harvesting (pdf 536KB). From Plant Talk No. 43, pages 32-35 (2006). Reproduced with permission.
Click here for descriptions of some medicinal plants and conservation issues (from WWF's website).
