The use of medicinal plants in India and many
other developing countries can be considered a living tradition. The
World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that the primary health
care needs of approximately 80 per cent of the developing world’s
population are met by traditional medicine (Srivastava et al, 1995).
Traditional medicine systems range from the Ayurvedic, Unani, Siddha
and Tibetan in India, the Kampo in Japan, the Jamu in Indonesia, and
many more. The traditional systems of medicine largely depend on
natural resources for their medicines, out of which plants form the
bulk of the medicine. The Natural Products Alert (NAPRALERT)
databases at the University of Illinois document the ethnomedicinal
uses for more than 9,000 species (Farnsworth and Soejarto, 1991).
Plant use in traditional Indian health systems
goes back a long way. Ancient medical texts bear evidence of the use
of plants for veterinary use, for plant health and also for textiles
(vegetable dyes), cosmetics and perfume. This kind of use is
prevalent even today. The All India Ethnobiology Survey carried out
by the Ministry of Environment and Forests estimates that over 7,500
species of plants are estimated to be used by 4,635 ethnic
communities for human and veterinary health care across the country
(Foundation for the Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions or
FRLHT, 1997). A recent study of the codified medical texts of
Ayurveda reveal that approximately 1,700 species of plants are
documented for their medicinal properties and mode of action and
over 10,000 herbal drug formulations are recorded. (FRLHT, 1997).
Rigorous inventories from the Unani, Siddha or the Tibetan medical
systems also would yield more information on plant use.
Medicinal plants like many other natural
resources are doomed to extinction unless fire-fighting measures are
deployed. Why has the destruction of a resource that has been
traditionally utilised over the years suddenly accelerated? The
reasons for this are many.
In a complete turn around, modern medicine is
getting more interested in medicinal plant therapies and as a result
the demand for medicinal plant products in the western world is on
the rise. Drug laboratories are today analysing more and more plant
products as remedies for the ever growing list of diseases. Some of
the existing major life saving drugs are plant derived. Take the
example of reserpine - a drug commonly used to control high blood
pressure and as an effective tranquiliser. Reserpine was isolated
from the raw plant Rauvolfia extract and used in western
medicine in 1952. Interestingly, the powdered root of Rauvolfia has
been in use in India for at least 2,000 years to treat mental
illness (Srivastava, 1995). This root, 35 years since it gave the
world its first tranquiliser, has become both medically and
economically extremely important. The US alone dispenses over 22
million prescriptions for reserpine (Srivastava, 1995).
With the increase in sophisticated research
facilities, and the growing interest of the western world in plant
products, more and more such discoveries will be made, leading to
commercialisation and perhaps overexploitation of the plants. There
is also the fear that with commercialisation there will be less left
for local consumption.
Another threat medicinal plants face is that of
habitat destruction. Under the Forest (Conservation) Act ,1980 and
the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, medicinal plants do get some
amount of protection. But a lot of medicinal plants grow away from
the protected areas domain and since there is no consolidated
strategy for medicinal plants, a lot of them just disappear without
even the knowledge of it. Within protected areas also, the lack of a
focussed conservation strategy could cause a depletion of this
valuable resource. Along with this, is an increased threat to the
availability of medical plants. Over 95 per cent of the medicinal
plants used by the Indian pharmaceutical industry are today
collected from the wild (FRLHT, 1997). Over 70 per cent of the plant
collections involve the use of roots, bark, wood, stem and in some
areas the whole plant, leading to destructive harvesting. If not
carefully monitored, this practice could lead to the depletion of
genetic stocks and ultimately to the diversity of medicinal plants.
With the onset of urbanisation and the lure of
jobs to urban areas; also with the spread of allopathic primary
health care to remote rural areas, traditional knowledge is being
lost and traditional systems eroding. The loss of ethnobotanical
knowledge in particular has also accelerated the depletion of plants
of medicinal value. Indigenous communities, because of their
intimate knowledge of the ecosystem and elements therein, knew how
to harvest plants while the species could maintain its population at
natural or near natural levels and ensure that the level of harvest
will not change the species composition. With this loss of
traditional knowledge, we are fast losing the ethical means which
ensure a sustainable harvest.
Efforts to conserve medicinal plants are being
made throughout the country, but are scattered. What is required is
a long-term strategy and an all encompassing law which takes into
account existing efforts and suggests other ways to conserve and
sustainably harvest medicinal plants.
The ideal conservation strategy for any species
is one of in situ conservation. For medicinal plants this is being
done to some extent in the current protected area management regime.
However, representative medicinal plants conservation reserves may
or may not overlap with the existing PA and a separate network of
such areas may have to be thought of. The forest departments of the
states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, in collaboration with
the FRLHT, have established a network of 30 medicinal plants
conservation areas across the Western Ghats. However if such areas
are established then there also has to be a regulation on the
harvest of the medicinal plants.
Simultaneously it is also important to look at
the ex-situ conservation of medicinal plants through set ups like
medical plant gardens and gene banks. The All India Health Network,
Lok Swasthya Parampara Samvardhan Samiti, Coimbatore, has
established 50 such gardens in the country. More recently, the FRLHT
has also established 15 such gardens in the three southern states of
Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The Department of Biotechnology,
Government of India, has taken the initiative to establish three
gene banks in the country.
More urgent than conservation for plants is to
ensure the availability of plants and planting material to the
various user groups and this is possible if enough nurseries are
established throughout the country. In south India, FRLHT has
recently set up a network of 53 supply nurseries. Besides this, no
organised nursery network or supply of quality planting material of
medicinal plants exists.
Of late, cultivation of medical plants is being
promoted as the solution to guarding against the depletion of the
plants and degradation of habitats. However cultivation of these
plants is not so easy. There is an unavailability of quality
planting materials as also a lack of standardised agronomic
practices. Today, out of some 400 species used by the Ayurvedic,
Unani, Siddha and Tibetan medicine, less than 20 species are under
commercial plantation.
Here also, the loss of traditional knowledge is
being increasingly felt. Traditionally communities cultivate (even
today) selected medicinal plants for personal use. The microniches
and ideal growth conditions for these species are known by the
communities. If large scale cultivation is being planned, then there
is a lot to learn from the communities. It thus becomes extremely
important to document ethnobotanical knowledge and also provide
incentives to the communities to keep this living tradition alive.
Medicinal plants have always been of interest to
the community since these plants are used on daily basis by them.
They also have a commercial value for the communities which is
considerably lower than the market price because they are sold in
the ‘raw’ form. To increase the communities’ stake in conservation
there could be considerable value addition to medicinal plants
through simple techniques such as drying, cleaning, crushing,
powdering, grading and packaging. Not many efforts are being made in
this direction.
The need to conserve medicinal plants is now
widely recognised and several measures suggested. However, as
mentioned earlier, no consolidated strategy to address issues
discussed exists, neither is there a defined policy for the
conservation of medicinal plants. Under the law, three Acts cover
medicinal plant issues in India at present. These are the Indian
Forest Act (IFA),the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, and the
Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (WLPA). The Indian Forest Act
applies only to material brought from the forest. The Forest
(Conservation) Act, 1980, and the Wildlife (Protection)Act, 1972,
facilitate only the in situ conservation of medicinal plants.
Outside protected areas the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972,
provides a regulatory mechanism of six endangered plant species
under its Schedule VI. Out of these only one is of medicinal value.
The export import policy of India looks at the export as well as
import of plants and plant parts on the basis of the Convention of
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
(CITES), Appendix 1, which essentially lists the same six species of
plants that are under schedule VI of WLPA (Jha, 1996).
There is no control on the exploitation of
medicinal plants from outside protected areas. Most species banned
for export are thus because of their endangered status and not their
medicinal value. A national level policy is required if any
consolidated effort towards the conservation of medicinal plants is
foreseen.
A national policy should have within its
framework several points. The policy must be formulated keeping in
mind the various user groups of medicinal plants. It must recognise
the fact that there is a much larger population of non-commercial
users, as opposed to commercial users.
The policy framework should advocate conservation
in situ and ex situ as well as cultivation. This is needed,
considering the long term availability of medicinal plants and the
immediate needs of user groups. The policy would have to look at
means to raise financial resources and incentives for encouraging
conservation actions.
To facilitate implementation, the policy should
review existing institutions working in the field, encourage their
strengthening and, where necessary, also review the possibility of
building new institutions.
Most importantly, the policy needs to take into
account the legal and regulatory mechanisms related to medicinal
plants.
Several efforts are afoot towards the formulation
of such a policy. A pioneering attempt was made by the FRLHT in
January 1997. FRLHT organised a national consultation on medicinal
plants in Madras. The result was a document on the guidelines for a
national policy. We have yet to see something more concrete.