Conserving medicinal species: securing a healthy future (original) (raw)

Conservation of Medicinal Plants: A Major Issue

Research & Reviews: Journal of Agriculture and Allied Sciences, 2015

The safeguarding of therapeutic herb species is critical in light of the fact that we are all around familiar with the unfathomable recuperating properties of herbs utilized everywhere throughout the planet. There is a consistently expanding measure of examination affirming the restorative force of herbs. Nonetheless, there is a tremendous measure of information plants have yet to uncover to us. As per the World Health Organization (WHO) "upwards of 80% of the world's populace relies on upon customary pharmaceutical for their essential health awareness needs." most of conventional treatment includes the utilization of plant concentrates or their dynamic standards. The preparatory consequences of a study done by WHO, has demonstrated that the quantity of people utilizing restorative plants has expanded to a great extent. It is not simply in creating nations that therapeutic plants are vital. In the USA, for instance, 25% of all medicines from group drug stores between19...

Approaches and policy's for medicinal plants conservation

The Pharma Innovation Journal, 2022

Medicinal plant conservation is challenging, since the taxa occur during a wide selection of habitats and geographic regions. Their conservation threats and supreme use are diverse and users aren't only local rural communities but also distant urban citizens. Ex situ conservation remains the most remit and area of experience of botanic gardens. In situ conservation is the preferable methodology, since ex situ conservation tends to take place outside the range state of the target species. The preservation of species in place offers all the benefits of allowing survival to act, which can't be recreated ex situ. A policy trend positively linking biodiversity conservation by CBD, WTO,TRIPS, UNCTAD Bio Trade Initiative, MEA, Doha Declaration, GSPC,WHO, CITES with human development is gaining momentum and people's access rights to natural resources necessary for his or her survival have improved with policy provisions.. In India a unique and pioneering program for conservation of wild medicinal plants has been initiated and it has involved establishment of a network of MPCA focused on conservation of prioritized wild medicinal plants. Seed banking was a vital backup to other conservation methodologies, and one that should be supported and expanded for medicinal plants.

3 Health , Habitats and Medicinal Plant Use

2008

Medicinal plants are the roots of medical practice. Of the 12,807 species used in traditional Chinese medicine, for example, 11,146 are plant species (Zhao, 2004). Medicinal plant uses range from anti-microbial 'chewing sticks' for dental care and the treatment of internal parasites to symbolic uses. In fact, of the global total of 422,000 flowering plant species, more than 50,000 are used for medicinal purposes, with an estimated 2500 species of medicinal and aromatic plants traded worldwide, most still collected from wild sources (Schippmann et al, 2003). Across all cultures, for most of human history, all doctors effectively were botanists, using medicinal plants as the primary source of medicines to treat disease. In Europe and North America, however, commercial pharmaceutical production since the 1950s, a medical 'effectiveness revolution' (Stevens and Milne, 1997) and randomized clinical trials have altered attitudes towards the botanical roots of medicine. Nevertheless, public healthcare programmes involving traditional medicines and traditional healers have been implemented in many parts of the world (see Chapter 14, this volume). In China and Vietnam, for example, a long, well-documented history of medicine linked with significant policy support has resulted in public health programmes that use herbal treatments for many common illnesses (Wahlberg, 2006). These programmes often include collaborations with local universities and research institutes, which study and sometimes standardize traditional medicines (Balick et al, 1996). In Nigeria, collaborations between local universities, NGOs, traditional healers' associations and government have helped create the scientific and legal foundation for broader dissemination of traditional medicine as part of primary health care (Iwu and Laird, 1998). In the Caribbean, a programme called TRAMIL (Traditional Medicine in the Islands) has focused on medicinal plants used in households, promoting the safest and most significant species for primary health care (Lagos-Witte et al, 1997). In Brazil, primary health-care programmes are being developed using traditional medicines to meet the needs of communities that lack basic pharmaceutical medicines (Silva et al, 2005), and in the Peruvian Amazon, a regional indigenous federation known as FENAMAD is addressing local health-care needs (Alexiades and Lacaze, 1996). The legal and ethical implications of researching and commercializing traditional knowledge associated with medicinal plants have received extensive attention in recent years from indigenous peoples' groups, researchers, NGOs, governments and others, including as part of the policy process growing from the Convention on Biological Diversity (e.g., Posey, 1999; ten Kate and Laird, 1999; Laird, 2002). But it is beyond the scope of this chapter to review these issues here.

Conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants: problems, progress, and prospects

Chinese Medicine, 2016

Medicinal plants are globally valuable sources of herbal products, and they are disappearing at a high speed. This article reviews global trends, developments and prospects for the strategies and methodologies concerning the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plant resources to provide a reliable reference for the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants. We emphasized that both conservation strategies (e.g. in situ and ex situ conservation and cultivation practices) and resource management (e.g. good agricultural practices and sustainable use solutions) should be adequately taken into account for the sustainable use of medicinal plant resources. We recommend that biotechnical approaches (e.g. tissue culture, micropropagation, synthetic seed technology, and molecular marker-based approaches) should be applied to improve yield and modify the potency of medicinal plants.

Conservation of Biodiversity with Reference to Indigenous Herbal Therapeutic Agents

Biodiversity with reference to ethnic therapeutic agents is a much studied phenomenon. In the present study, commonly available herbs like Aloe vera, Andropogum citratum, creeper like Piper betel and tree like Terminalia arjuna, known to have healing effects, were checked for their antimicrobial activity. Aqueous extracts of suitable plant parts were checked for antimicrobial activities against selected Gram positive and Gram negative microbial pathogens. Maximum activity was shown by Terminalia arjuna against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The antimicrobial activity of plant extracts was compared with that of standard antibiotics. Piper betel inhibited maximum number of pathogens showing equivalence to Nalidixic acid. The study emphasizes the fact that nature has cure against most natural invasions and the need for preserving and propagating such ethnic medicinal agents once again comes to fore.