Medicinal Plants: Rescuing a Global Heritage (WB, 1997, 80 p.)
1. The global background
(introduction...)
Economic issues
Policy issues
Regulatory issues
Social issues
Conservation Issues
Agricultural issues
Forestry issues
Veterinary issues
The international research base
Medicinal Plants: Rescuing a Global Heritage (WB, 1997, 80 p.)
1. The global background
As was noted in the previous volume, plants are still an
indispensable source of medicinal preparations, both preventative and curative.
Despite immense progress in synthetic chemistry and biotechnology, hundreds of
species are recognized as having therapeutic value. Many of those are commonly
used to treat and prevent specific ailments and diseases.
While health providers in industrialized nations have reduced
their dependence on the Plant Kingdom, the majority of developing nations still
rely on herbal remedies. Medicinal plants constitute one of the important
overlooked areas of international development. They represent a form of
biodiversity with the potential to do much good, and not just in the field of
healthcare. Indeed, the production and processing of medicinal plants offers the
possibility of fundamentally upgrading the lives and well-being of peoples in
rural regions. It can also help the environment and the protection of habitats
and biodiversity of the developing
world.
Economic issues
The potential world market of phytomedicines or herbal medicines
is very large, but its significance to the global economy can at this point only
be inferred from a few sources of diverse and inadequate data. The World Health
Organization estimated in 1980, for instance, that the world trade amounted to
$500 million a year. However, information from diverse sources suggest that the
overall trade in botanicals has since then greatly increased. This has been
accelerated by a renewed interest in traditional medicines in many developing
countries and especially in Europe and North America.
The developing countries, particularly those in Asia, are the
main suppliers to the developed countries of plants used in pharmacy. However,
in Africa and Latin America local and regional trade in medicinal plants is
growing rapidly along with an increasing demand by international plant traders
hoping to discover new "wonder" drugs.
Germany is one of the largest importers of medicinal plants. The
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has determined
that Germany's imports include at least 40 threatened or endangered species.
Many were originally listed in CITES to protect them from heavy exploitation for
the ornamental trade. However, it became apparent that many of these were also
used for medicinal purposes.
There is a reason for Germany's imports of medicinals. Of all
the western nations, Germany has made the greatest progress in bridging the gap
between traditional and Western medicines. Every medical student there is taught
about phytomedicines and more than 80 percent of all German physicians regularly
use herbal products. The government requires that plant drugs must be
standardized and of proven safety and efficacy. Safety of long-used natural
products is generally assumed, if no side effects have been reported. Clinical
experience noted by physicians, scientific evidence published in technical
journals, and data supplied by manufacturers are the basis for the doctrine of
"reasonable certainty," which Germans accept as a substitute for strict clinical
trials. The German experience is being closely watched by both industrialized
and developing countries as it offers an example of how to integrate the two
systems.
The global demand for medicinal plants is expressed from four
identifiable sources: (i) pharmaceutical industries, (ii) traditional healthcare
systems; (iii) individual traditional health practitioners, and (iv) women in
family home care. The money values involved depend not only on the extent to
which barter or non-monetary exchange is a factor, but also the degree to which
the production and sale are concentrated in visible locations, regulated and
taxed.
Gauging the extent and growth of the global trade in herbal
ingredients is made difficult by unpredictable fluctuations in price. Such
fluctuations - typically over six to nine year periods - are common as the
availability of many wild medicinal plants goes from oversupply to scarcity very
quickly and then slowly stabilizes again. Variations in price due to supply
conditions make it difficult to determine the extent to which demand is
increasing. Government(s) and the local private sector would probably be more
willing to fund research on the extent of existing and potential supply of
medicinal plants if they had a better idea of the potential (and existing)
market. From that they could tell how much could be sold, at what price, and
therefore what profit was to be made.
The regulated trade provides all the present data on the market
value of medicinal plantsfrom raw material to finished product. The unregulated
market includes all manner of medicinal plants where there is no market
accounting (largely because the government draws no benefit from these sales).
This informal use of medicinals includes home use, exchange between neighboring
families, collecting and sale in rural markets, use by traditional health
practitioners and other undocumented transactions.
The most complete data are, unsurprisingly, available from the
official Chinese and Indian healthcare systems, but even that is incomplete.
Even where there are local pharmaceutical industries, the figures on general
herbal drug sales to the public are often unavailable. Assessing informal
medicinal product sales by traditional health practitioners and vendors,
primarily peddled by women in local markets, would be very difficult due to a
lack of records. Similarly, products grown in home gardens and administered to
family members have an unknown value. It is this cultural value, that is rarely,
if ever, captured in economic analysis. Yet it is likely to represent a
significant portion of the total economic benefit provided by these plants.
A number of Asian countries (including China, India, both
Koreas, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines) have the technical background,
knowledge, and existing pharmaceutical industries to process raw materials and
market finished products. However, the majority of developing countries in Latin
America and Africa lack the industrial base and financial resources to expand
this market rapidly. As a result, 86 percent of finished health products are
still manufactured in Europe and North America. 6 In virtually every developing
country, local healthcare needs are satisfied primarily using raw materials from
plants. The majority of people just cannot afford to purchase imported
pharmaceutical products.
Not much has been done to assist developing countries to develop
their medicinal-plant resources. However, two organizations - the International
Organization of Chemical Sciences in Development (IOCD), Falls Church, Virginia,
USA, and Biotics Ltd., University of Sussex, UK - have taken an active role in
this. IOCD has helped establish the Network for Analytical and Bioassay Services
in Africa (NABSA), which links cooperating laboratories with capabilities to
provide services in chemical spectroscopy and biological evaluation. Services
currently offered by NABSA Centers are in Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), Kenya
(Nairobi), Madagascar (Antananarivo), and Botswana (Gaborone). Biotics Ltd.
provides access to high technology screening through training of phytochemists.
As a result, a number of independently-owned companies have been created in
developing countries to prepare plant
extracts.
Policy issues
Developing countries are entering a new era when community
health services will likely occupy an evermore prominent position in national
priorities. The type of production, processing, and manufacturing of a large
array of medicinal plants produced in the rural sector - and in turn the ability
of developing countries to invest in medicinal plant (phytopharmaceutical)
industries - will determine the future quality of those community health
services.
To derive optimal benefit from the conservation and cultivation
of its medicinal-plant genetic resources, each country must develop an
integrated strategy for their management and use, identify policies, and enact
legislation that will encourage a broadly-based delivery of the benefits to be
realized from these actions rather than allowing the majority of the economic
benefits to accrue to a smaller but well-place minority.
So far, however, few developing countries are doing this. In
order to stimulate more such action, three regional workshops sponsored by
Global Initiatives for Traditional Systems of Health (GIFTS) were held in Latin
America, Africa and Asia in 1994-95 followed by an international meeting in
England in late 1995. All stressed the need for clearly-defined policies
promoting the safe utilization of traditional medicine. Recommendations
included:
- the documentation and promotion of traditional
medicines with proven efficacy;
- increased funding of research and development programs;
- need to evolve policies which involve local communities in
conservation programs;
- document and cultivate endangered plant species known to have
medicinal uses;
- recognizing the role of women;
- information exchange; and education at all levels to increase
awareness of medicinal plants and their economic potential in drug
production.
Regulatory issues
All countries where medicinal plants and traditional medicines
are used are aware of the need for regulating the use of medicinal substances.
Indeed, most developing countries have a heritage in the use of plant-based
medicine that is far older than the modem of medicine. China probably has the
strictest criteria for regulating the sale of traditional plant-based medicines.
Chinese authorities are well aware of the problems and constraints facing them
in the production, processing, and marketing of herbal medicines. The Government
of India, while constantly upgrading its controls, does not exercise any
regulatory control over the use of "home-made" remedies that are used by a large
segment of the vast Indian population.
The European Scientific Cooperative for Phytotherapy (ESCOP) is
currently drafting fifty monographs of product characteristics to be used as a
basis for licensing phytotherapeutics in all member states of the European Union
(EU). Since January 1995, a decentralized marketing authorization procedure has
existed in addition to the national licensing of individual member states.
Following enactment in 1994 by the United States Government of the Dietary
Supplement and Health Education Act (DSHEA) greater effort has been made to
develop guidelines for quality control, good management practice, and to provide
a sound scientific basis for ensuring proper identity and purity of finished
products. Such activities by the industrialized countries put greater pressure
on the developing countries to regulate trade in medicinal plant raw
materials.
Social issues
Sociocultural factors play an important role in the preservation
of medicinal plants and the people's continued reliance on traditional medicine.
Often, villagers will use a modem medicine to relieve their immediate symptoms,
while turning to traditional medicine for treating the root cause of the
illness. Revival of traditional health systems following decolonization, as well
as increased self-determination of indigenous groups, has led an increasing
number of developing country governments to re-evaluate and promote their
traditional medicine systems. Such systems are a response to the conditions and
needs of local populations. To have any chance of success, however, new public
health systems must necessarily incorporate the cultural habits handed down
through generations.
Traditional Knowledge. Most developing country societies
view traditional medicine practices as an integral part of social culture.
During colonial times, however, traditional healthcare systems gradually lost
patronage and favor especially with the urban populationsdue notably to the
imposition of Western culture and to the support given to Western (allopathic)
medicine. Since the demise of colonialism, there has been a gradual
reestablishment of the traditional systems of teaching and dispensary in
indigenous medicine. It is in light of this resurgence, both locally and
internationally, that pressure is being placed on an important component of that
healthcare--the plants.
In some cases, however, traditional practitioners have resisted
attempts to document their knowledge. They see such disclosures as being
detrimental to their practice. In addition, they treat with skepticism the
outsiders' interest in their plants and therapies, rightly believing they will
receive no credit or royalties for any future drug discoveries derived from
their knowledge.
Yet exchanging experiences and scientific data on various
aspects of traditional medicine prevalent in different parts of the world is an
important step in helping save the plants and the knowledge of their use. And
there are also greater advantages to be reaped. In many parts of the world, for
instance, there are no doctors and no Western drugs. Even where doctors are
available, import restrictions and government budgeting often mean there are
insufficient medicines to distribute. Sometimes, preparations are used even
though they have passed their expiration date.
In such circumstances, it would probably be better to use herbal
medicines-all of course chosen with care, supplied with a maximum of quality
assurance, and prescribed by practitioners the patients trust.
Taken all round, the availability of locally-grown drugs, their
relatively low cost, and the minimal side-effects associated with many of the
drugs are important factors in providing primary healthcare. For persons who
have never experienced sickness or illness without medicines, these are
important considerations.
Women's Role. In many of the developing countries women
serve as conservators and cultivators of medicinal plants. Through their
household practices they use traditional approaches in caring for the health
needs of the family. In Africa and Latin America, women constitute the majority
of traditional medical practitioners, as well as the primary gatherers of
medicinal plants. Women are the traditional birth attendants, delivering and
tending the mother's pre- and post-natal needs.
Although often unappreciated, most mothers are the de facto
healers of the family tending to accidents and ailments with medicinal-plant
remedies cultivated in their home gardens, maintaining the family diet,
administering medicines, providing counseling and essential emotional support.
It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that virtually every leader of a
developing country benefited at some time in his/her formative years from the
medicinal-plant knowledge of a mother or grandmother.
Enhancing Social Capital. The importance of traditional
medicinal-plant knowledge or social capital is evident by the need for
"bioprospectors" (Western specialists seeking new and profitable drugs from
nature) to recruit indigenous peoples to identify local flora and describe their
uses and healing properties. The need to protect intellectual property rights
(IPR) has now become a major issue both for developing countries whose genetic
resources are being exploited, and for developed countries whose patent law
cannot always be enforced in developing countries.
Legal restrictions over access to, and removal of,
medicinal-plant germplasm. are easier to enforce than legal protection over the
use of the information represented by that genetic material (intellectual
property rights). In the past, many countries have failed to adequately enforce
such property rights, partly because of a lack of awareness of the potential
value contained within their genetic resources. The recognition of IPRs,
however, may provide a very important incentive to many countries to institute
environmental policies preserving biodiversity. 9 A careful balance needs to be
achieved between restricting access to plants, which may enable economic returns
to be achieved, and restricting access to information which may have opportunity
costs.
Generating Income. Medicinal plants are both a source of
income and a source of affordable healthcare. As described above, many poor
people derive their only income from harvesting medicinal plants. This income
however, is probably declining in those countries where natural habitats are
disappearing. A strategy that integrates conservation and cultivation of
medicinal plants could create long-term employment and income opportimities.
Agricultural R&D, and production will require qualified professional and
technical workers, and labors, many of the latter can be recruited locally.
Expanded local pharmaceutical industries would also require additional workers
at all
levels.
Conservation Issues
If existing medicinal-plant resources are to continue to meet
demand now and in the future, they will need to be adequately protected through
the development of appropriate policies and legislation. Awareness of the
conservation issues and of the importance of sustainable utilization needs to be
raised among all stakeholders. Perhaps most importantly, local people need to be
supported and encouraged to take the necessary steps to protect this valuable
resource. The collection of medicinal plants must be guided by an accurate
knowledge of the biology of the species concerned, and steps must be taken to
avoid over-exploitation, and the collection of rare or otherwise endangered
species.
Preserving Wild Genes. Fortunately, many plant species
consist of thousands of populations. These together form a gene pool in which a
more or less free gene exchange can take place. This is a feature that can be
utilized by plant breeders to protect medicinalplant diversity.
Box 1: The Lost Ancient Plant We Could Use Today
As an example of the importance of preserving medicinal
plants consider the case of silphion, a weed once used as a contraceptive. It
was apparently so effective that the Ancient Greeks literally revered it. Now,
with population growth seemingly out of control a plant like this could have
immense significance. Unfortunately, the Greeks used so much of it, it became
extinct. Botanists can no longer find the species.
Between 570 and 250 BC the majority of coins minted in ancient
Cyrene, a city situated in what is now the eastern part of Libya, carried the
embossed picture of the Silphion plant. This reflects the enormous
economic importance this plant had for the city over four centuries.
The perennial roots and strongly ribbed annual stems of the
Silphion plant were eaten in the fresh state and were regarded as a perfume,
flavoring agent and spice. The juice was employed medicinally against a wide
range of symptoms and diseases, especially gynecological ailments-it was a true
"multi-purpose species" in the sense of modem economic botany.
It appears that Silphion was found only in the dry
hinterland. Attempts to cultivate it seem to have failed, so wild plants
remained the source of supply. No reasons have been given for its disappearance
although overharvesting is considered to be at least one reason for the dramatic
decline in its use and final extinction as an economic resource. What we have is
an example of overharvesting and probable extinction of an ancient medicinal
plant. Silphion reflects both the potential wealth through plant
utilization and the possible risks and downfall through overharvesting.
For historic (if not biological) reasons, the majority of
medicinal plants used in developing countries are located in specific
ecosystems. Prohibiting wild collections in these locations could devastate many
poor families by cutting off their source of income. It is therefore important
that education programs that justify the need for regulations governing in-situ
conservation and collecting be developed. The local people should participate in
this and the efforts should be linked to ex-situ conservation and cultivation
programs that would provide an alternative source of income (or perhaps an equal
income from smaller harvest through such means as improved quality control).
In-Situ Conservation. The protection of medicinal-plant
resources was not identified as a major concern of conservation organizations
until 1984.10 Four years later, the Chiang Mai Declaration recognized medicinal
plants as an important component of the globe's biota. It noted that these
plants are an essential part of primary healthcare in most of the world; and it
viewed with alarm the rapidly increasing loss. The Global Biodiversity Strategy
recognized the importance of conserving medicinal-plant biodiversity. Its
socalled "Action 40" cals for the development of traditional medicines to ensure
their appropriate and sustainable use, and "Action 41 " promotes recognition of
local knowledge, particularly medicinal healers. "Action 67" specifically
mentions medicinal plants as a key group deserving increased attention. At the
Rio Conference in 1992 the Convention on Biological Diversity ratified these
action items.
Nonetheless, only a few countries seem to have pursued their
obligations regarding medicinal-plant conservation. One of these is Sri Lanka,
where the government has for a long time implanted in its people a strong pride
in their natural heritage. Sri Lanka is a good example for other -countries to
follow. Its flora and fauna enjoy a high level of protection, with over 400
reserves set aside for their conservation. 14 Stringent laws apply in these
reserves. The government has an aggressive policy of in-situ conservation to
save valuable species, and in particular medicinal plants. This action was, in
part, linked to the rapid resurgence of Ayurveda following independence and the
demand for medicinal plants for Ayurvedic drugs. A Ministry of Indigenous
Medicine was established in 1980. In 1986, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
funded the Conservation of Medicinal Plants of Sri Lanka with the objective of
establishing an aggressive policy of in situ conservation to save valuable
species from extinction. The World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC)
provides services to CITES. The CITES database is the largest of its kind,
currently holding some two million entries on trade in wildlife species and
their derivatives.
WCMC is the only organization that gathers, analyzes and
provides information on plants threatened with extinction on a global scale. The
Centre is aware of the growing need to protect and conserve medicinal plants.
Because of the potentially large number of medicinal plants requiring protection
and the limited funds available categorizing medicinal-plant species the
following characteristics could be used to set priorities:
· commonness or
rarity; · means of propagation; · sensitivity to environmental conditions; · plant parts used; · properties and medicinal uses; and · community knowledge and use.
A partnership between WCMC and the World Bank established in
1995 will provide full biodiversity data mapping services to the World Bank;
seek to extend these services to GEF partners in UNEP and UNDP; capture and
mobilize data deriving from investments in biodiversity; repatriate data to the
developing world; build capacity for biodiversity information management in the
developing world and strengthen information networks. Being able to access
medicinal-plant data will enhance the decision-making process regarding
protection, research priorities, management objectives, and polices to yield
best results using ever scarce financial resources. It is on the basis of such
information medicinal-plant diversity can be preserved in situ,
successfully sustained, and ensure the germplasm for long-term ex-situ
conservation and cultivation.
Ex-Situ Conservation. In 1989 the Botanic Gardens
Conservation International (BGCI), in collaboration with IUCN and WWF, published
The Botanic Gardens Conservation Strategy as a guide for the development
of botanic garden roles in biodiversity conservation. It has developed a
computer database listing rare and endangered plants in cultivation in about 350
botanic gardens worldwide, which is used to foster networking and linkages. BGCI
considers medicinal plants a priority area for botanic gardens for the future.
In July 1995, BGO launched an appeal for funds to establish an effective network
of botanic gardens for medicinal plant ex-situ conservation and to
strengthen the capacity of botanic gardens in developing countries. The first
such gardens will be established in Colombia, Haiti, Uganda and
Vietnam.
Agricultural issues
For many medicinal plants, cultivation is the main hope for
maintaining supplies at today's levels. The wild resources are decreasing, the
supply fluctuating in an unstable manner, the quality control is inadequate.
Additionally, the botanical identification of the specimens is often
suspect-sometimes because of fraud and other times because of genuine mistakes.
Different species of plants (with wholly different chemical constituents) often
look alike to the person handling the dried materials, and even sometimes to the
gatherers themselves. The people handling the samples may he unreliable, and the
chances for adulteration are legion.
Through the process of cultivation, the various plants can be
increased on a controllable and sustainable basis, the quality can be better
assured, the species identification made secure. In addition, there are
possibilities for improving the crop genetically based on the level and mix of
ingredients that have the medicinal effects. Yields can be manipulated by
agronomic means, such as fertilizer and pest control. Finally, the handling of
the materials can be regularized and the possibilities of adulteration reduced.
But all of this is mostly untapped as yet. While the
domestication and cultivation of medicinal plants is several thousand years old,
it is apparent that most agriculture ministries in developing countries play
little role in cultivating medicinal plants. The present source of the raw
materials for the pharmaceutical industries, traditional health practitioners
and family users is met basically from wild sources, including places such as
field borders, marginal, remote, and waste lands where the wild vegetation is
left to grow unattended. The demand is also met by cutting forest trees or
uprooting herbs and shrubs on nominal payment or on an unauthorized basis. A
much greater awareness needs to be created among agriculturists that cultivation
is the primary means of reversing the impact of unsustainable harvesting
practices of wild populations.
Palevitch (1991) compared collection versus cultivation for
eight important considerations. In light of the continuing loss of biodiversity,
the relative advantage of cultivation is even more pronounced. While millions of
dollars are invested in supporting food and other crops, little is spent on
supporting the world's medicinal-plant resource base. Nevertheless, isolated
medicinal-plant breeding programs have already produced a number of high
yielding cultivars.
The efforts of the medicinal-plant breeder should be aimed at
increasing the final yield of the active compounds and enhancing the metabolic
functions that result in their accumulation. There will be difficulties as our
knowledge of medicinal-plant genetics and physiology is poor, and we know less
about the biosynthetic pathways leading to active ingredient formation for which
these plants are valued. Another difficulty is that perhaps certain subsidiary
compounds must also be present for the herbal cure to be effective.
An especially inhibiting factor in the breeding research is the
variability of medicinalplant populations. Many populations found in their
natural habitats are not balanced in terms of chemical characteristics and
active compounds. Selective breeding of medicinal plants may follow several
lines, including: random selection in populations; landraces with specific
chemical characteristics; selection of clones; and hybridization. Commercial
cultivation of medicinal plants demands strong and continuing attention to these
diverse fields.
The farming of medicinal-plant is coming into a new stage of
development that could lead to it becoming a major employer of local labor and
an instrument to poverty alleviation in the developing countries. The efficiency
and success of medicinal-plant cultivation will depend on the productive ability
of plant material and collaboration between researchers and local peoples to
enhance and sustain that production. Basic questions that need answers include:
· Is the plant
suitable for cultivation? · What are its
ecological and agronomic requirements (light, moisture, soil, etc.)? · Does it tolerate intra- and interspecific
competitors? · What insect pests, and plant
pathogens are likely to attack it? · Will
harvesting be a problem? · How well will it
store without loss of therapeutic activity? ·
Can it be easily processed (purified, packaged, and shipped without losing
efficacy)?
Forestry issues
Forest products are these days being divided into two
categories: (i) timber products and (ii) the so-called "non-timber forest
products" (NTFPs). Medicinal plants are in the NTFP category and may be
considered as non-domesticated crops. Little attempt has been made to
objectively assess these natural resources in forest industries. Principe (1995)
has suggested that an estimate of medicinal-market value is more easily
characterized in forest ecosystems as people can more readily visualize the
range of benefits of forests than other ecosystems. Therefore a proper
assessment and evaluation of those plants endemic to the forests is a necessary
priority to provide acceptable estimates for policy appraisals, research needs
and sustainable forest management programs.
At present many important and potentially important forest
medicinal plants are destroyed or left to go to waste during logging operations.
The forest sector, as a supplier, has little knowledge or appreciation of their
value. A notable case in point is the destruction of the small yew trees in the
forests of the Northwest of North America. They were long considered useless
"weeds" but now provide the current drug of choice against a number of deadly
cancers.
Given such discoveries, it is increasingly recognized that the
forest sector must reexamine its short-term and long-term objectives and develop
a multiple-product management plan that accounts for NTFPs as well as timber
products. In the production of forest medicinal plants there is an opportunity
for foresters, the pharmaceutical industry, and local practitioners of
traditional medicine to work together to their mutual
benefits.
Veterinary issues
The need to conserve and protect the world's medicinal plants is
required not only for man but also for his domesticated animals. In fact all
biota, wild and domesticated, within the global ecosystem probably depends at
least in part on plants that sustain health.
It has of course long been known that certain plants cause farm
stock to be sterile or to abort. Those conditions cause great economic losses in
terms of milk, meat and progeny.
Only now, however, are veterinary scientists beginning to study
this with conviction and deep interest. The wild species of the Animal Kingdom,
no doubt utilized the medicinal powers of plants long before humans appeared on
the scene. But herdsmen quickly learned about the value of these species.
Centuries of observation and experience have resulted in a rich storehouse of
ethnoveterinary knowledge and technique among stockculture peoples. Today, for
those cultures where stockraising forms a vital part of their livelihood plants
are a primary source of prevention and control of livestock diseases. It is
thought that the percentage of animals dependent on medicinal plants is greater
than the figure of 80 percent that is given for humans. In some traditional
medical systems, human and animal healing are not differentiated. The herbal
treatments often overlap and might be administered by the same persons.
Delivering veterinary services to pastoralists can be as
difficult as delivering public health and other basic services and far, more
complex than for settled peoples. Nonetheless, as traditional medicine is
experiencing a revival in human medicine so is the veterinary sector, During the
past decade, FAO has commissioned a number of reports on the status of
veterinary medicine in Asian countries. All found that ethnoveterinary practices
could be usefully incorporated in animal-health services.
Globally, veterinary medicine has followed the industrial
countries prejudice for technology over traditional knowledge and
self-sufficiency. Happily, the revival traditional medicine is experiencing is
occurring in both human and veterinary medicine.
Box 2: The Use of Plants in Animal Medicine
There are many known uses of medicinal plants in the healthcare
of livestock in developing countries. A sampling includes:
· In France farmers hang henbane
(Hyoscymus niger) in sheep pens to combat sheep pox. · In Uganda, farmers hang amaranth (Amaranthus
spp.) in chicken houses to provide vitamin A, often found lacking in scratch
feed. · Researchers in Guatemala tested 84 of
the most commonly used plants for gastrointestinal disease in farm animals and
found that 40 percent inhibited one or more of the five main bacterial
pathogens. · In Mexico, the traditional
therapy for a bloated cow is to tie a branch of the pirule tree (Polakowskia
tacacco) in her mouth. The bitter taste provokes salivation, which helps to
buffer the stomach, while the physical presence of the plant encourages chewing,
thus assisting in the release of stomach gas.
The international research base
By 1991, 27 WHO collaborating centers for traditional medicine
had been established worldwide to strengthen national efforts in research and
development. The network also serves to collect and disseminate information on
both useful and harmful traditional practices. In the early 1980s, FAO compiled
an initial list of 22 medicinal plants, used as raw materials for drug
production. This work has continued and is coordinated by the FAO collaborating
center, the Research Institute for Medicinal Plants, Budakalasz, Hungary. The
FAO Non-Wood News Bulletin, first published in 1995, provides a wealth of
information on medicinal plants (although, given the state of knowledge, much of
the information is neither consolidated nor
validated).
Medicinal Plants: Rescuing a Global Heritage (WB, 1997, 80 p.)
2. China
(introduction...)
Production and trade
Notable Chinese medicinal plants
Government initiatives
Links to modern medicine
Links to agriculture
Links to forestry
Protecting medicinal-plant biodiversity
Medicinal Plants: Rescuing a Global Heritage (WB, 1997, 80 p.)
2. China
In China, medicinal plants have long enjoyed a prominent role in
healthcare services. Indeed, Chinese traditional medicine has a history
extending back 4000 years with the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal
Medicine considered to be the world's oldest extant medical book. The most
famous Chinese work on on traditional medicine was the Compendium of Materia
Medica written by Li Shizhen (1518-1593). The fiftytwo volumes describe
1,892 kinds of medicines, including 374 new ones, and 11,096 folk prescriptions
and proven recipes. Zhong Yao Da Ci Dian, published in China in the 1970s
describes 5,767 different kinds of herbal medicines (Box 3). In very modem times
(1958) A Barefoot Doctors Manual, translated into many languages,
describes both modem Western medical practices and the traditional Chinese
methods of diagnosis and healing. Chinese traditional medicine stands today as
the result of countless centuries of valuable practical experience, and is
enriching modem medical knowledge throughout the world.
Box 3: The Snake That Knew
A legend from the most ancient times tells of a farmer who found
a snake near his hut. He beat it with his hoe and left it for dead. The same
snake reappeared a few days later, apparently as healthy as before. Again the
farmer beat it. This time he watched the bleeding snake crawl to a particular
clump of weeds and begin to eat them. By the next morning its wounds were
healing again, and its vitality rapidly returning.
Such was the fabled discovery of san qi or Panax
notoginseng. It is the main ingredient of Yunnan Baiyao, a light tan herbal
powder that counteracts internal or external bleeding by promoting extremely
rapid cell division and thus bonding the edges of wounds. Yunnan Baiyao also
helps to improve blood circulation, disperse blood clots, and stop inflammation
and swelling as well as expelling pus and counteracting poisons. Chinese
soldiers have carried it in their first aid kits for many centuries. They call
it jin bu huan - more precious than gold.
Source: Yuqiu Guo, TONE, 1995.
Production and trade
Medicinal plants are as important as ever in Chinese commerce.
Traditional medicine still retains a 40 percent share of the medicine market
nationwide. In remote districts, however, plant-based preparations may account
for 90 percent of drug consumption. Accordingly, the quantity of medicinal
plants (in traditional medicines and as ingredients in "modem" medicines) is
very large. And it is growing larger. Sales of traditional medicines over the
last five years in China have increased 113 percent.
The majority of China's factory-processed drugs are of plant
origin. In fact, medicinalplant preparations are almost as important as
synthetic drugs, such as antibiotics. About 6000 plant-based medicinal
preparations are processed into 3000 registered preparations and teas made from
a crude drug or drug mixtures (these teas are locally known as yingpins). In
1990, Chinese doctors reportedly used for direct use in traditional
prescriptions 700,000 tons of plant material. A number of traditional systems of
medicine occur in China: Han, Yi, and Bai to name a few.
These efforts are backed up by an industrial enterprise of
impressive size. In 1986, for instance, 300,000 persons were working in
factories and traditional drugstores all over the country. Of the 519 Chinese
traditional pharmaceutical factories in 1985, about 10 employed more than 1000
persons. By 1995, there were 2300 designated Traditional Chinese Medical
hospitals, 846 manufacturers and 250,000 traditionally trained Chinese doctors.
There are over 5000 licensed patent medicines, including 2,500 health products
that utilize 11,559 botanical, animal and mineral sources.
The share of factory-made traditional drugs has continuously
increased as a percentage of total pharmaceutical consumption from 1975 to 1995
(see Table 1). The following data are an indication of the level of regulated
trade and value which has experienced 113 percent growth between 1990-1995.
Beyond this regulated trade there is a family-based and localmarket trade. The
size of this is unknown but it is safe to assume that it is considerable and
that it imposes a heavy demand on wild-plant sources since little of it is based
on cultivated plants.
Factory-made traditional pharmaceutical preparations are
exported to markets where the Chinese system of medicine is practiced. The
highest value of shipments from a single factory in 1986 was $20 million.
Figures for production growth are given in Table 2.
The exports go mainly to Asian countries, but plant-based
medicinal products are also sent to Europe and, increasingly, the United States
and Canada. A single company in the United Kingdom, for example, sells 1500
herbal products, the majority of which are traditional Chinese remedies. The
products are sold to medical practitioners and consumers, and are licensed as
food supplements. Each comes with information on uses and dosages, but no
medicinal claims. In the future, the company intends subjecting some of its
products through clinical trials in hopes they can then be marketed as
over-the-counter medicines.
Table 1: Sales 1975-1985 of synthetic pharmaceuticals and
traditional medicines and 1990-1995 of traditional medicines in China in
regulated markets
Year
Total Sales ($ million)
Traditional Medicines
Percent Share ($ million)
1975
3,179
350
10.9
1976
3,209
350
10.9
1977
3,644
400
11.0
1978
4,200
456
10.9
1979
4,779
579
12.1
1980
5,211
696
13.4
1981
4,914
749
15.2
1981
4,945
809
16.4
1982
5,354
920
17.2
1983
4,923
869
17.6
1984
4,107
739
18.0
1985
3,930
710
18.0
1990
n.a.
1,111
n.a.
1991
n.a.
1,317
n.a.
1992
n.a.
1,534
n.a.
1993
n.a.
1,701
n.a.
1994
n.a.
1,395
n.a.
1995
n.a.
1,451*
n.a.
* estimate of the Eighth Five Year Plan
n.a. not available
Source: 1976-85 Better Use of Medicinal Plants. UNIDO,
1987. 1990-95 State TCM Administration. (S.Kuipers, pers. com.)
Table 2: Production Statistics 1979-1986 of Chinese
Traditional Medicine Factories (ex-factory price)
Year
Number of
Gross Output
Value added
establishments
employees
($ million)
(thousand tons)
1979
269
n.a.
448
78
102
1980
352
n.a.
581
84
146
1981
402
86,885
642
103
174
1982
409
98,584
714
130
216
1983
427
104,429
810
141
242
1984
476
110,303
767
137
245
1985
519
118,842
713
156
243
1986
535
125,000
680
160
234
Source: State Pharmaceutical Association of China;
1986 figures are UNIDO estimates.
A well-organized operation lies behind such enterprises. In this
case, British importers buy raw and processed plant materials-such as
concentrated powders and various extracts-from China. They also import 100
Chinese patent medicines, the selling price of which is about five times the
value of the raw materials they contain. Importers repackage and relabel the
products, providing information to satisfy British regulatory requirements and
using attractive packaging to meet the expectations of the Western
consumer.
Notable Chinese medicinal plants
During the past 30 years, the identifications of the
historically recorded medicinal plants have been verified and their chemical
taxonomy determined. The Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Crude Drugs
(1977) describes the botanical and analytical standards of 5646 crude drugs. The
latest edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia contains a list of 647 crude drugs
of botanical origin, their formulations, methods of preparation, requirements
and tests for strength and purity, and related information. The Ministry of
Health has begun the standardization of the names of all phytopharmaceutical
preparations.
Three of the most commonly-used plant species in Chinese
medicinal preparations are described below. They give a sense of the botanical
wealth to be found in China's natural resource heritage.
Ginseng (Panax ginseng). Probably the most famous
among Chinese traditional drugs, ginseng was first described in Materia
Medica written almost 2000 years ago in China. It is By the 4th Century,
centers of production, time of harvesting and morphological characters had been
recorded. During the past 1500 years, the value of ginseng has remained high -
"equal to its weight in silver." The plant also occurs and is cultivated in
Korea, Japan, Russia and North America. Because the root shape can resemble the
human form, it was believed to be effective in curing disease and strengthening
the weak (i.e. a general cardiac tonic). Its medicinal value appears to
stimulate the pituitary gland resulting in homeostasis (chemical and metabolic
balance). This concept is the central principle of traditional Chinese medicine.
Production data for ginseng are given in Table 3. Jilin Province
in northeast China is the major producing area but in recent years Liaoning and
Hailong, Provinces have increased production.
Table 3: Domestic Market Dried Ginseng (tons)
Province
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
Jilin
1800
2500
3200
4100
5400
5500
5000
4000
3500
3000
Liaoning
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
2000
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
1300
n.a.
800
Heilong.
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
500
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
1000
n.a.
400
Total
6600
6300
4200
Source: He Shan-An, Institute of Botany,
Nanjing.
The price while high in 1988 ($250,000 per ton) dropped in 1989
with record yields to $80,000 per ton, but has been rebounding in recent years
(for instance, in 1995 it was $150,000 per ton). The significant price
difference between 1988 and 1989 might be indicative of what can happen with
increased production and no price control at the farm level. Approximately 2000
tons of dried ginseng with a value of $50,000 per ton are exported annually.
Another 2000 tons (undocumented) are also exported. At the same time North
American ginseng exports to China doubled between 1993 (1140 tons) and 1995
(2200 tons).
Eucommia (Eucommia ulmoides). This plant also
known as the gutta-percha tree, has been an important economic plant and is
endemic to the mountainous regions of China. It is now known only in
cultivation, having been harvested into extinction in the wild. All parts of the
tree are valuable but the bark is the main medicinal. For many centuries,
eucommia, bark or tu-chung was used traditionally as a rejuvenating tonic
to benefit the liver and kidney, and to strengthen the muscles and bones. It was
only in 1948 that its antihypertensive activity was discovered. The bark is the
source of the active compound pinoresinal di-�-D-glucoside.
This tree's bark, fruit, and leaves contain 6 to 18 percent
gutta-percha, a material chemically akin to natural rubber but that is hard and
lacks "bounce" . The extracted rubber has excellent insulation properties, low
moisture absorption and is resistant to acid, alkali, oil, and corrosion, and
represents one of the important raw materials for the manufacturing of undersea
cables and airplane tires. It has excellent bonding properties, serving as
materials for filling teeth and setting bones. The seed is the source of high
quality cooking oil. The leaves contain vitamin C and may be used as tea. The
wood is valued for manufacturing furniture and handicrafts.
The tree is found in more than 260 counties of 16 Chinese
provinces. Hunan is the major center of production, producing more than all the
other provinces together. The Province has the Eucommia Scientific Research
Centre located in Cili County. Approximately 0.2 million hectares are under
eucommia plantations. The total annual yield is about 4000 tons of bark, of
which about 2000 tons are exported. Production is expected to reach 5000 tons by
2000. While leaf production is more difficult to calculate, exports in 1993
reached 5000 tons.
Despite the quantities produced, there is not enough to meet the
demand. Because of its many uses the bark's market prices are high and stable;
domestic prices are between $6 per kilogram and the international market is $80
per kilogram. 35 Production is expected to increase significantly in the future
as the plant can be intercropped. with food crops and used to rehabilitate
degraded hillsides. Provincial medicinal-use production figures are presented in
Table 4.
Table 4: Eucommia Cultivation in China, 1993
Regions
Total area (ha)
Bark yield (tons)
Leaf yield (tons)
Output value ($ million)
Hanghong, Shaanxi
36,000
500
2500
19.5
Ankang, Shaanxi
33,000
990
40,000
30.5
Cili, Hunan*
27,000
2000
40,000
114.9
Anchu, Shandong
800
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
Jiangxi
7000
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
Source: He Shan-An, Institute of Botany,
Nanjing.
Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides). Human beings
have been using this shrub for at least 1200 years. The plant known in English
as seabuckthorn, was recorded in the Tibetan medicinal classics (the Four
Books of Pharmacopoeia) completed in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). Although
China was one of the earliest countries in the world to use seabuckthorn as a
medicinal plant, until 1980 its use was limited to Tibet and Mongolia. The
processing of seabuckthorn medicinal products did not start in China until 1986.
It has proven to be a profitable crop because of its many uses in the medicinal,
food, and cosmetic industries.
At present, 1.2 million hectares (95 percent of world total) of
seabuckthorn are under cultivation in 19 provinces. Seven breeding stations have
been established to select new varieties adapted to different biogeographic
regions.
In China, there are an estimated 740,000 hectares and 300,000
hectares of natural and cultivated plants. As of 1995, more than 10,000 people
were employed on various aspects of plant development, 95 percent are located in
rural areas and do not include farmers. Because major economic benefits can be
realized quickly (in three or four years) farmers are keen to plant.
Approximately 50,000 tons of seabuckthorn berries are harvested annually and
processed into 200,000 tons of various products valued at $35.7 million. The
Chinese government has invested more $25 million in seabuckthorn research and
development.
The shrub has attracted a great deal of attention from
scientists and engineers around the world because of its combined ecological and
economic benefits. The seabuckthorn root system, for example, is so extensive
that its roots can branch many times in a growing season and form a complex
underground network that holds the soil from slippage like wire reinforcing mesh
in concrete. When plants are buried under sediments massive adventitious roots
extend to form new horizontal root systems. An individual plant can propagate
massive bushes or a small forest in several years. This is why the seabuckthorn
bushes play such a prominent role in protecting river banks, preventing floods
and minimizing slope erosion. The plants are considered more effective than any
construction work. Furthermore, its role in rehabilitation and upgrading of
marginal or fragile slopes through soil-binding is well documented.
Where land degradation and its accompanying poverty occur it can
play an important role in soil and water conservation and land rehabilitation.
Seabuckthorn is a multipurpose plant, and its potential is far from fully
exploited. With further study, more and more uses could be developed in the near
future. Its humanitarian and economic benefits can be summarized as follows. The
plant is:
· a source of
low-priced vitamins, seabuckthorn fruits can benefit millions of children
suffering from vitamin A deficiency.
· a means for generating cash
income, it has since 1985, in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, provided
farmers with earnings of about $1.06 million from the sale of fruit every year.
· an option for stabilizing
mountain slopes it is selected by farmers and engineers because of its extensive
root system, soil binding qualities, its provision of good surface cover, and
its utility as fodder, food, fuelwood, and supplier of medicine.
It seems no wonder, therefore, that a 1990 assessment put
China's total area of seabuckthorn at about I million hectares, and the total
value of its products at more than $20 million per year. Moreover, between
1991-1995, an additional 330,000 hectares were scheduled to be bought under
seabuckthorn
cultivation.
Government initiatives
China's long-term goal is to eventually unify and integrate
traditional and Western approaches to medicine, but, given the complexities
involved, this will require years to achieve. There has been a movement to speed
the process of shared use of hospital facilities, cooperative approaches by
traditional medicine and Western medicine. Most importantly, this has involved
mobilizing and training traditional medicine practitioners as part of a primary
prevention strategy against chronic disease. In this, the Chinese Academies of
Science and Medical Sciences play a leading role in medicinal-plant research.
The Ministries of Agriculture and Forestry appear to play a very limited role.
One part of the governmental health service deals specifically
with the application of traditional medicine. The State Administration of
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was established in 1987 as a separate
administrative agency reporting directly to the State Council. A separate TCM
structure is present at the Provincial and City levels. The formal TCM structure
has, as its lowest level, a series of TCM hospitals. These are sometimes quite
large institutions. There are many thousands of both formally trained and
informally trained traditional practitioners. TCM practices are found at most
Western hospitals and in most clinics and health centers. The separate vertical
structure is justified by TCM authorities as being needed to protect TCM
institutions and personnel from being overwhelmed and absorbed by the larger and
more powerful Western medicine system.
A government corporation is the leading promoter of
medicinal-plant cultivation. The National Corporation of Traditional and Herbal
Medicine is an integral part of the State Pharmaceutical Administration of
China. Established in the early 1950s, it was given responsibility for the
cultivation, collection, and distribution of medicinal substances of natural
origin, as well as for the industrial production and domestic distribution of
phytopharmaceutical preparations. This organization's importance has been rising
ever since. In 1987, for instance, China devoted 300,000 hectares strictly to
medicinal-plant cultivation. By 1995, the area had increased almost 50 percent,
to 439,000 hectares, a clear recognition that the government has responded to
the need to meet the rising consumer demand (see Table 5). Government policy
encourages producers to see their work as a longterm business. Interest-free
credit is given to farmers on request.
Table 5: Cultivation of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Plants
1990-1995 (1000 of ha)
Year
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
Area planted
363
384
426
382
424
439
Source: State TCM Administration (S. Kuipers, pers
com.)
In 1987, UNIDO carried out a joint study with the National
Corporation of Traditional and Herbal Medicine to determine the needs of an
expanded pharmaceutical industry. They concluded that important socioeconomic
advantages would be gained by using domestic medicinal-plant raw materials,
resulting in the creation of jobs both in agriculture and industry, and the
regular availability of safe and effective drugs at an affordable price for
primary healthcare. The investment costs to support a pharmaceutical industry
were considered relatively small, the dosage form and quality control capacities
would be convertible, and the acquired knowledge and experience would prove
useful at an eventual diversification date. Programs supporting integration of
traditional and modem medicine would include:
· special
educational Programs to publicize the proper use of plant-derived herbal
medicines; and
· consultations at regional
levels on various facets of the medicinal-plant industry, stressing quality
standards and safety, with a view to promoting the wider use and acceptance of
herbal medicines.
In recent years phytopharmacological
researchers have isolated and chemically characterized 571 active compounds from
crude drugs. Sixty new drugs have been developed that originate directly or
indirectly from these substances. They include:
· a new class of
antimalarial/antipyretic properties from the leaf of sweet wormwood
(Artemisia annua);
· analgesic and nervous system
depressants from the rhizomes of yanhusuo (Corydalis sp.); and
· antitumor ingredients from
bark of the plum yew (Cephalotaxus
harringtonia).
Links to modern medicine
Legal recognition and government patronage granted to
traditional medicine are seen as key factors in the future successful
integration of the two systems (see Table 6). It is legal to sell medicinal
plants and herbs in the free market, both in rural and urban areas. However, if
a new medicinal-plant product or crude drug is to be imported from abroad for
sale in the Chinese market, then the approval of the provincial department of
public health is required. The new product will be assessed according to
standards in the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China. The
origin of the material must always be clearly marked.
Table 6: Examples of Traditional Chinese Plant Medicines as
Related to Modern Usage
Species
Name - English
Name - Chinese
Modern Application
Plant Part
Aguilaria sinensis
Peimoshan
asthma, cardiac
bark, exudate
Amomum villosum
Sahun
stomach ache
seeds
Begonia finbristipula
Begonia
Qiuhaitang
heat or sunstroke
leaves
Cartharentus roseus
Changchunhwa
anti-tumor
all parts
Chrysantheum morifolium
Chrysantheum
Chuhua
cold, influenza
flowers
Eriobotrya japonica
Loquat
Pipa
pulmonary disorders
fruit
Lonicera japonica
Honeysuckle
Chinyen Hua
fever, cold
flower, vine
Cephalotaxus haenensis
Sanjiansan
leukemia, lymph node, tumors
whole plant
Morus alba
White Mulberry
Sang
diuretic, pulmonary soother
leaves
Trichosanthes kirilowii
Tienhwafen
reduce infection
fruits, seeds
Source: Wang, L. 1987. Plants to Keep People
Healthy.
All Chinese herbal medicines produced in factories either for
local use or for export have to undergo quality control tests before being
released. Each factory has its own quality control unit that checks on the
quality of different samples of the product. An attempt is being made to ensure
that the quality of Chinese traditional medicine produced in China is of a high
standard. Among the factors considered in choosing the standard substance
against which all preparations will be tested are such factors as climate, soil,
and time of collecting.
Rigid criteria are being laid down for assessing patented
traditional Chinese medicines. The manufacturer must list the main ingredient
and the other ingredients. Reviewing authorities will determine whether there
are incompatibilities between the different ingredients. Only after assuring
themselves that the product conforms to the Chinese traditional system of
medicine, that it is safe, and that the ingredients are not incompatible with
each other will the patent medicine be allowed to be released into the market.
The review and assessment is largely carried out by persons trained in the
traditional Chinese system of medicine.
The Chinese authorities are well aware of the problems and
constraints facing them in developing this link with modem medicine and are
endeavoring to develop a system that would use similar standards of quality
control without detriment to the practice of Chinese traditional medicine and
use of plant-based remedies in this system of medicine.
Box 4: New Hope for Malaria
Malaria occurs in 103 countries and strikes 270 million people
worldwide annually, killing two million, according to the World Health
Organization. The parasites are developing resistance to chloroquin and other
synthetic drugs. For more than 2000 years, traditional Chinese healers have
relied on an infusion of qing hao (wormwood leaves from Artemisia annua,
a common weed) in water to cure the potentially fatal fevers of malaria. The
active ingredient in qing hao, artemisinin acts by turning the malaria
parasite's food into poison. The mosquito-borne parasite that causes malaria
settles either in the liver, where the disease becomes chronic, or in blood
cells in the brain, where it can lead to coma and death. The parasite feeds on
blood but does not metabolize the iron in red blood cells, instead keeping it in
a kind of sac.
When the chemicals in artemisinin come in contact with the iron,
a toxin is created that kills the parasite, thereby curing the malaria,
according to Steven Meshnick, a parasitologist at the University of Michigan
School of Public Health, who has tested the drug on malaria patients in Vietnam.
Artemisinin is being extracted from plants and formulated into medications in
Vietnam at very low cost. The drug is effective against both major types of
malaria, the vivax strain, which occurs in the liver, and the falciparum strain
in the brain. The drug has been used on more than 2 million patients with no
side effects. Other drugs for malaria are mostly synthetic derivatives of
quinine, to which the parasite has become resistant.
Researchers in China, United States, The Netherlands, United
Kingdom, and Vietnam are studying the therapeutic powers of this ancient remedy.
More than a dozen derivatives of artemisinin are being tested around the world
in a program sponsored by WHO, United Nations Development Program and the World
Bank.
Source: S. Meshnick, University of Michigan School of Public
Health, 1996.
Since China had to rely on its own natural and human resources
until very recently it developed its own models based on pragmatism and
practicality, and this has greatly helped medicinal-plant research . Being
isolated minimized the constraints placed on traditional Western concepts of
research methodology. This afforded them opportunities to make advances and use
medicinal plants both for research and therapeutic effect. For example, they
have released for widespread evaluation gossypol, a male contraceptive, and
arternisinin for malaria control (see Box 4). The working relationship between
field scientists, pharmacologists, and clinical investigators is proving
effective. Such a strategy could be very rewarding for other developing
countries as it clearly recognizes the importance and value of the knowledge of
traditional medicinal practitioners in providing affordable
healthcare.
Links to agriculture
Apparently, the Ministry of Agriculture has no specific mandate
related to the cultivation of medicinal plants. It has, however, identified 1000
species of medicinal plant and 380 species of medicinal fungi of economic
importance. Medicinal plants are seen as a companion crop to food crops, and an
additional source of income, especially in remote and highland areas.
The Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Institutes of
Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are actively engaged in
medicinal-plant research, including cultivation. In 1987, the Chinese Academy of
Agricultural Sciences set up a national germplasm bank for crop genetic
resources. At present, it has 230,000 accessions, but it is not known if they
include medicinal
plants.
Links to forestry
China is poor in forest resources, with a total forested area of
131 million hectares covering 13.6 percent of the land area. The Chinese
Ministry of Forestry has prepared a detailed afforestation model, which covers
technical silviculture prescriptions, growth targets, establishment costs,
financial and economic rates of return, and environmental benefits. Currently,
there are about 12.7 million hectares of plantation forests, and representing 65
percent of the area under plantation forest in all of Asia.
A China Forest Resource Development and Protection Project
included the medicinal plant eucommia under protection forests. The component
integrates non-consumptive economic activities with afforestation for
environmental benefits. Under the project 8700 hectares (3.1 percent) were to be
planted to eucommia in Sichuan Province.
In addition to the cultivation figures in Table 4, approximately
10,000 hectares of eucommia and other broadleafed species of medicinal plant
have been planted in Guizhou, Guangxi and Yunnan Provinces plus 1200 hectares in
Hunan Province. In neither project is the Ministry of Forestry involved in
species selection regarding climatic and ecological suitability to specific site
conditions, environmental management objectives, and the socioeconomic
requirements of the afforestation entities for income generation, fuelwood and
other forest products. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Forestry has an important
role to play in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Chinese Academy
of Medical Sciences, Eucommia Scientific Research Centre, Cili County, Hunan,
and other ministries and bureaus to ensure the successful establishment of
medicinal-plant cultivation
programs.
Protecting medicinal-plant biodiversity
Due to the destruction of forests, overgrazing of remote and
marginal lands, expansion of industry and urbanization, as well as the excessive
harvesting of wild rare and endangered plants, biological diversity of medicinal
plants is being reduced day by day. The Institute of Medicinal Plant Development
(IMPLAD), a WHO Collaborating Centre of Traditional Medicine under the Chinese
Academy of Medical Sciences, specializes in research on medicinal plants. A
primary function of IMPLAD is to protect and enlarge medicinal-plant resources
and improve their quality.
Examples of threatened species include:
· Fritillaria
cirrhosa occurring in northwestern Sichuan Province is rarely found today;
roots are used for respiratory infections and as a cancer remedy;
· Dioscorea spp. Many
species of Chinese yam have been eradicated throughout much of their original
range during the past 30 years; roots used as an analgesic, seeds as diuretic,
leaf against scorpion stings, and the whole plant as a tea;
· Iphigenia indica
populations are under serious threat in northwestern Yunnan as a result of low
fecundity and the effects of overharvesting; the bulb (root) has antitumor
compounds; and
· licorice (Glycyrrhiza
glabra) has also suffered from over-collection and consumption, and exports
have been stopped to restore the production base; root extracts used as
antidiarrheal, flowers for upper respiratory diseases.
Preserving Wild Genes. It is generally reported that of
the 35,000 plant species growing in China, approximately 5136 are used as drugs
in Chinese Traditional Medicine (see Table 7).
Table 7: Chinese Medicinal Plants Identified To Date
Origin
Number of Species
Origin
Number of Species
Thallophytes (algae/fungi)
281
Gymnosperms
55
Bryophytes
39
Angiosperms
Pteridophytes
395
Monocotyledons
676
Dicotyledons
3690
Total
5136
Source: Xiao(1991)
Of the 389 rare and endangered plant species listed in the
Chinese Red Data Book (1991) 77 are traditional Chinese medicinal plants.
Although more than 50 are being grown in botanical gardens, there is still
insufficient research on their protection. A number of important medicinal
plants have been preserved in genebanks under the auspices of several
agricultural institutions and botanical gardens. Every effort is being made to
expand research on population genetic variation. One such example is
Atractylodes lancea, preparations which inhibit indigestion, edema (fluid
build-up), vomiting and chronic gastroenteritis.
In-Situ Conservation. The Biodiversity Conservation
Action Plan for China was initiated in 1992 with funding under the Global
Environmental Facility (GEF) program. 49 The in-country process is coordinated
by the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), which established a
Leading Group to provide overall supervision, direction and coordination. It is
composed of those agencies with significant biodiversity responsibilities. To
date 700 nature reserves, 480 scenic areas and 5 10 forest parks have been
established. However, for purposes of coordinating departments and solving
management issues there is no single authority, nor any state law or unified set
of regulations.
NEPA established a Medical Management Department responsible for
the national use and protection of precious medicinal materials (plant, animal
and mineral). Some geographical regions have been declared protected areas for
the growth of vulnerable species (for example licorice). Authorities believe
such action is necessary to restore sustainable production levels.
Ex-Situ Conservation and Cultivation. A number of
long-term programs have been established to conserve medicinal plants and
enhance their value through cultivation. The agricultural area used for
cultivation of medicinal plants increased from 300,000 hectares in 1986 to
440,000 hectares by 1995 and produces about 40 percent of the total output of
crude drugs. Each year, approximately 200 medicinal plants species are
cultivated. More than 700 farms are engaged in cultivating high-quality
medicinal plants. In addition, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of
Botany, Nanjing has a 186 hectare farm that includes a Medicinal Plant Garden
and a Rare and Endangered Conservation Garden. The institute has recently
established the Jiangsu Plant Ex-Situ Conservation Laboratory that works closely
with the Phytochemical Laboratory in research on medicinal plants.
Important measures have been adopted to guarantee the continuous
supply of raw materials to industry and the market. Government guidelines have
been established regarding the protection, exploitation, and utilization of
natural resources. 51 As a result of recent research and development programs, a
number of previously wild medicinal plants (for example Glycyrrhiza
platycodi, G. gentianae, G. astragali, and G. changii)
have been successfully cultivated. 52 Xiao (1991) identified additional wild
growing medicinal plants which are needed in large quantities and now being
cultivated:
· Chinese licorice
(Glycyrrhiza uralensis); roots and lower stem are used as a buffer in
herbal prescriptions, act similar to adrenocortical hormones, and are effective
against stomach ulcers and Addison's Disease;
· rhubarb (Rheum
palmatum); root extracts reduce dyspepsia, fever and diarrhea; Chinese
researchers are actively studying anticancer properties;
· broomrape (Cistanche
deserticola); a parasitic herb used against impotency;
· China "root" (Poria
cocos); a fungus growing on pine tree roots, promotes diuresis; and
· yam (Dioscorea
nipponica); root extracts used for rheumatoid arthritis.
In addition, modem biotechnology is used for propagating
Lithospermum erythrorhizon, Panax quinquefolium, Corydalis yanhuosu,
Scopolia tangutica and others. This has included tissue-culture propagation,
for example.
The Beijing Botanical Garden of the Institute of Botany and the
Medicinal Botanical Garden of Guangxi Autonomous Region published in 1994 a
color atlas of traditional Chinese medicines with text on techniques of their
cultivation. The atlas is in two parts and includes: (i) 302 traditional Chinese
medicinal plants; plants are listed in eleven categories according to plant
parts used; and (ii) cultivation and propagation methods, management, control of
pests and diseases, and harvesting and processing of the medicinal products.
Government policy encourages practitioners of traditional
medicine to see their work as a long-term business. At the same time,
interest-free loans are given to farmers on request as an inducement to grow
medicinal plants. Information on demand and supply is widely disseminated.
Over-supply of raw materials due to favorable weather conditions is purchased,
processed, and held in
stock.
Medicinal Plants: Rescuing a Global Heritage (WB, 1997, 80 p.)
3. India
(introduction...)
Production and trade
Notable Indian medicinal plants
Government initiatives
Links to modern medicine
Links to agriculture
Links to forestry
Links to veterinary medicine
Protecting medicinal-plant biodiversity
Medicinal Plants: Rescuing a Global Heritage (WB, 1997, 80 p.)
3. India
Medicinal plants in India have been collected from the wild and
cultivated for millennia. The Rig veda, written in India between 4800 and 1600
BC is the earliest record (in India) of the use of tree, shrub, herb, and grass
combinations for curing ailments. Since then, thousands of books and papers have
been written extolling the therapeutic value of Indian medicinal plants. In the
Indian commercial market, it is generally accepted that nearly 95 percent of the
medicinal plants in use are obtained from the wild. For the rural poor that
figure is probably 100 percent.
The Indian Subcontinent contains about 25,000 species of
vascular plants, of which at least half are endemic to the region. The 7000
medicinal plants used by the various traditional medical systems account for 28
percent of the region's flora--a very high
percentage.
Production and trade
India has a special position in the world today because it is
one of the few countries that is capable of producing most of the important
plants used both in modem as well as traditional systems of medicine-a result of
its vast area with a wide variation in climate, soil, altitude, and latitude.
India is a major exporter of raw medicinal-plant materials and processed
plant-based drugs. Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Japan, and
the United States are major importers of Indian medicinal plants, accounting for
75 percent of total exports. Germany is the lead importer, which translate into
$1.1 billion over the counter phytomedicine retail sales. Although India ranks
as one of the major suppliers of medicinal plants to the world, its export of
derivatives (chemical substances derived from medicinal plants) is insignificant
when compared with those from developed countries.
At present the marketing and distribution of medicinal-plant raw
materials is not well organized or documented. Middlemen are contracted by the
pharmaceutical companies to provide raw materials. They in turn contract
collectors in the rural areas to provide the plant materials. Few reliable data
are available regarding total demand of individual plant materials (roots, bark,
leaves, fruit, seed, etc.), their prevailing prices or localized availability in
the country. Of increasing concern to industry is the adulteration of plant
materials. For example, Aconitum heterophyllum is an important
constituent of a number of Ayurvedic formulations. Companies utilizing this
species find that deliveries invariably include three other Aconitum spp.
that have to be removed, with an added cost to processing. To counter such
problems, a number of companies have established their own R&D stations and
are pursuing cultivation studies on the more vulnerable species used in
formulations.
Demand and supply estimates by the Ministry of Health were used
by Jain (1987) as an indication of the inability of one region, the North West
Himalaya, to satisfy demand in 1986 (see Table 8). The supply/demand ratio is
likely to be even worse in 1996, resulting in even greater demand on wild
medicinal-plant sources and consequent increased threat to species survival.
Another reason for companies to establish cultivation programs.
Table 8: Medicinal Plants: Demand and Supply in North West
Himalaya
Botanical Name
Demand (tons)
Supply (tons)
Orchis latifolia
more than 5000
less than 100
Rauvolfia serpentina
"
"
"
"
"
1000
Gentiana kurroo
"
"
"
"
"
100
Aconitum heterphyllum
"
"
1000
"
"
"
Plumbago zeylanica
"
"
"
"
"
"
Onosma bracteatum
"
"
5000
"
"
"
Picrorhiza kurroo
"
"
"
"
"
"
Dioscorea deltoides
"
"
"
"
"
"
Source: Ministry of Health, New Delhi. in Jain,
1987.
The pharmaceutical industries, large and small, are a powerful
socioeconomic force in India. Very recent statistics (see Table 9) for the
export of medicinal plants from India reveal that between 198586 and 1994-95 the
export value of crude drugs increased 2.76 times to a value of $53.2 million.
Important crude drugs included: Plantago ovata (psyllium), Panax
spp. (ginseng), Cassia spp. (senna), Catharanthus roseus
(periwinkle), and numerous Ayurvedic and Unani herbs. Essential oils included:
Santalum album (sandalwood), Mentha arvensis (peppermint), and
Cymbopogon flexuosus (lemongrass). The major destinations were: United
States, Japan, Germany, France, Spain, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. An important
fact is these statistics do not account for the huge volume of the undocumented,
illegal medicinal-plant trade. In addition, the values quoted are the returns to
India only. In reality, the plants would sell in foreign markets at
significantly higher prices. If processed in India the financial returns from
such exports would be considerably greater. However, these figures must pale
beside the value of the formal internal market.
Table 9: Export of Crude Drugs and Essential Oils from India
between 1985-1995 ($ million)
Year
Crude Drugs
Essential Oils
Total Revenue
1985-86
19,272
4,553
23,825
1986-87
16,848
6,889
23,737
1987-88
22,489
4,638
27,127
1988-89
17,805
4,974
22,779
1989-90
25,504
8,600
34,104
1990-91
36,802
5,821
42,623
1991-92
41,345
15,592
56,937
1992-93
48,417
15,267
63,684
1993-94
45,355
19,504
64,859
1994-95
53,219
13,250
66,469
Total Revenue
327,056
99,089
426,145
Source: CHEMEXCIL, Bombay. 1996
While India is not self-sufficient in pharmaceutical production,
the majority of medicines used in the Indian Medical System (IMS) are
manufactured by the private sector. Traditional Indian Ayurveda medicine has a
70 percent share of the formal medicine market in India. i.e. it provides for
the needs of more than 600,000 million people. However, there are no estimates
of the value of the informal market. Both these economically important internal
markets must place a heavy demand on wild medicinalplant species procured from
wild sources in forests, plains, fields, and remote lands. Data for medicinal
plant sources, number of workers employed, and income generated (see Table 10)
have been provided by Dr. Nambiar, Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakal, Kerala and are
estimates for a typical year.
As of 1987, there were 3349 units licensed to manufacture
plant-based pharmaceuticals, but their contribution to the total production was
considered only marginal. The machinery for the collection, production and
marketing of plant-based products is not centrally regulated. A legal quality
control mechanism exists, but is only partially implementable due to the absence
of pharmacopoeial quality and industrial manufacturing standards. Important
steps in future development include the publication of the Ayurvedic
Formulary of India (Part 1), a list of drugs of plant origin currently
imported, suggested for domestic cultivation, and medicinal plants approved for
export. A sub-group on indigenous systems of medicine has been established
within the Working Group of the National Drugs and Pharmaceutical Development
Council to consider the evolution of plant-based pharmaceuticals in India.
Table 10: Resource Use Patterns, Income, Employment and
Healthcare Coverage Arya Vaida Sala, Kottakal, Kerala, India.
Plants "imported" from northern states
number
Approximately 550
amount
500 tons (dry-weight)
roots/rhizomes
25 percent
origin
Calcutta, Orissa, Assam, Maharashtra, Delhi Madhya Pradesh,
Punjab and Kashmir
market value
approx. Rs 5.2 crore (approx $1.6m)
costs for collecting/transporting
2-3 percent
Plants cultivated in Kerala
number
Approximately 150
amount
400 tons
percentage roots/rhizomes
40 percent
approx market value
Rs 4 crores (approx $1.35m)
number of people employed
1600
income generated
Rs 6 crores (approx $2m)
Medicinal-plant processing in Kerala
number of people employed
540
approx market sales value
Rs 8 crores (approx $2.65m)
tons stored annually
540 tons
estimated tonnage lost in storage
0.25 tons
Hospital
number of staff
200
number of patients
inpatients, 1395; outpatients, 6650
income generated per annum
Rs 79,000 (approx $263,000)
Source: Bajaj and Williams, 1995.
Today traditional practitioners of the Indian systems of
medicine - Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha - are providing prescriptions in the form
of manufactured products rather than their own prescriptions. The demands of the
pharmaceutical industry have outpaced the existing supply, and one of the major
difficulties being experienced by the Indian systems of medicine is that of
obtaining sufficient quantities of medicinal plants for the manufacture of
genuine remedies. No sources reporting internal production and interstate trade
figures were located at this time.
Box 5: A Poor Return on a Natural Resource
The most recent medicinal plant to come under threat is tetu
lakda (Nothatodytes foetida), a small tree found in the rainforests of southern
India and Sri Lanka. Extracts from the wood are used in cancer-fighting drugs in
Europe. Twigs are available in India for only U.S. $0.26 (Rs. 9) per kg, whereas
the extract after processing is sold by pharmaceutical companies for U.S.
$15,000 per kg on the world market. Vast quantities of the tree are being cut,
pulverized, and exported in powder form with the result that increasing tracts
of forest are being laid to waste.
This plant is not included in the Ayurveda pharmacopoeia which
partly explains its abundance until recently. However, at the rate it is being
exploited it will soon become another threatened Indian medicinal plant species.
Source: A.B. Damania, per com.
Notable Indian medicinal plants
Jain (1987) has suggested that the bulk of Indian medicinal
plants for the pharmaceutical industries come from forest areas. Today, an
increasing number are being collected from non-forest ecosystems, as well as
disturbed and degraded lands, and roadsides. The following three medicinal
plants exemplify the diversity of habitats and use in medicinal preparations.
Neem (Azadirachta indica). The people of India
have long revered the neem tree, a broad-leaved evergreen tree that can grow up
to 30 m tall with a rounded crown as much as 20 m across. Because products
relieve so many different pains, fevers, and infections, and rids households of
pests, it is known as the "village pharmacy”. The earliest Sanskrit
medicinal writings refer to the benefits of the fruits, seeds, oil, leaves,
roots, and bark of the neem. Each of these has long been used in the Ayurveda
and Unani medicinal systems.
Neem chemicals can help control more than 200 pest species,
including locusts, borers, mites, termites, nematodes, and beetles. Recent
results in medical and veterinary studies indicate even wider future uses.
Currently, preparations derived from neem are used to treat:
In addition to the pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and veterinary
products, neem provides many useful and valuable income-generating materials
during the life of the tree. For example, its seed oil goes into soaps, waxes,
and lubricants, as well as into fuels for lighting and heating. Solid residues
are used as fertilizer. Leaves are used as emergency animal fodder. Neem is a
member of the mahogany family, and its wood-harvested when the tree is 35 or
more years old-is highly valued for cabinetry and construction.
The multipurpose nature of neem means that its products can
provide a range of employment opportunities in rural and urban communities.
Individual investors and farmers can expect a net income of $155 per hectare per
year from raising the neem tree. The collecting and processing of neem products
provides employment opportunities from rural to urban levels. Between 1970 and
1993 the price of neem seed has gone up from $9 per ton to between $90 and $120
per ton. 65 However, this increase has turned a free resource into an
exorbitantly priced one, with the local user now competing with industry for the
seed. The diversion of the seed to industry may undermine the ability of local
sources to provide healthcare to those users whose only affordable products are
raw plant materials. However, this is a self-correcting situation that is
stimulating both economic development and the planting of many more neem trees.
The multipurpose use and value of neem makes it an ideal species
for future research and development programs. Because neem can grow well on poor
soils, it opens up great possibilities for rehabilitating and stabilizing
degraded lands. Intercropping with seasonal food crops would make marginal lands
more profitable. Neem cultivation can be even more profitable if the seed is
processed locally. It would not only add value to products, but also generate
substantial employment and income in rural sectors.
Sarpagandha (Rauvolfia serpentina). Sarpagandha is
first mentioned by Sushruta in 600 BC because of its use in numerous Ayurvedic
formulations. In rural areas of India, at the first signs of insomnia,
melancholia, schizophrenia, or more violent mental disorders, the old women or
village physician would soak the roots of sarpagandha in rose water and
administer it. In 1952, the alkaloid reserpine was isolated, confirming the
plant's value. Since then the alkaloid extract, as well as purified alkaloids of
sarpagandha, have become very important in the treatment and control of
hypertension.
Following the publication of numerous scientific papers
extolling the medicinal powers of the plant, a ruthless search was started all
over India, a search that only came to a halt when sarpagandha had disappeared
from forest areas. Before 1970, India was a large supplier of roots of
sarpagandha to the world market, with exports averaging 40 tons yearly. In 1969,
the Indian Government banned the export of roots to help develop a local
extraction industry. India's exports of sarpagandha alkaloids have increased
considerably since the imposition of the ban; with most going to Japan. While
reserpine has been synthesized, sarpagandha-based products are still extensively
used for medicinal purposes in India owing to their availability and lower
prices. There is considerable opportunity for development by cultivation of
high-alkaloid strains of the plant, not only for internal use but also for
export to other countries.
Tree turmeric (Coscinium fenestratum). Tree
turmeric is a woody climbing shrub whose normal habitat is scrub forests,
wastelands, and along water courses, but today is extremely rare. The bark
containing a drug that is an important constituent in more than 60 Ayurvedic
formulations. It is useful for treating debility, fevers, and certain forms of
dyspepsia. It is thought to possess antiseptic properties and is used for
dressing wounds and ulcers.
Plant regeneration occurs from stumps of old plants and also
through seeds, but the rate of regeneration has been found to be extremely low.
On-going studies are seeking to propagate the plant outside of its natural
environment. 67 The species distribution is reported to have declined
significantly in recent years and is now declared
vulnerable.
Government initiatives
While the cultivation of medicinal plants is of great antiquity
in India, except for a few species, little attention has been paid to their
systematic cultivation. A recent publication by Chadha and Gupta (1995) brings
together for the first time a detailed accounting of the agronomic, genetic,
chemical composition, and contemporary status of agricultural research on 21
medicinal plants as commercial crops in India.
The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources and the Central
Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) are actively involved in
R&D on medicinal plants. Yet as far as industry is concerned there is little
if any collaboration. For example, of the thirty four medicinal plants being
investigated by the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources only four are of
interest to industry and the thirty four CIMAP have developed agrotechnology or
processing technology for the vast majority are not used for medicinal purposes.
The Basic Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics Export Promotion Council
(CHEMEXCIL) set up by the Ministry of Commerce, GOI lists 111 plants in their
Selected Medicinal Plants of India. If India is to be part of the
tremendous upsurge in herbal usage then government must respond more actively to
industry's needs. Both institutions have well established regional field
stations and should be able to provide consultative and technical services to
industry and farmers for cultivation and training.
As far as day to day procurement, collection, cultivation, sale,
purchase, import, and export of medicinal plants is concerned there is no
definite procedure and very limited scientific data available in the country.
There is no agency or organization with sole responsibility to regulate such an
important aspect of the herbal medicines of the Indian Systems of Medicine under
one banner. Materials are purchased from drug dealers in Bombay, Delhi,
Calcutta, Madras, Hyderabad, Amritsar and many smaller cities by the
pharmaceutical industry to manufacture products. The medicinal-plant dealers
procure materials from the so-called unknown sources (it forms part of their
trade secret). Plants are invariably collected by unskilled laborers not aware
of the properties of the derivatives. Adulteration and substitution are a
problem, as are the absence of standards relating to the products, storage,
transportation, costs, etc. While it would appear a contradiction, large
quantities of medicinal plants are known to go to waste because their value is
not known to the people of the areas where they occur naturally. The use of
local and trade names, without proper correlation to botanical names, further
adds to the general confusion and lack of systematic data on trade in medicinal
plants.
A recent conservation initiative by the Ministry of Environment
and Forests (MOEF) in collaboration with Wildlife Institute of India and the
World Bank seeks to establish a nationwide biodiversity information network.
Specific consumers of such biodiversity information include MOEF, CIMAP, the
Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI) of the Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR),
Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), the All India Medical Research Council (AIMRC),
MOEF and NGO advocacy groups. Agro-based and pharmaceutical industries are
expected to use biodiversity information for commercial or management purposes.
The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Division Act
(APEDA) has identified the area related to the export of medicinal and aromatic
plants as an "extreme focus sector." In practice, little is actively being done
to legitimize exports of medicinal plants. International trade in threatened
medicinal plants is regulated by the provisions of Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES). Only a few medicinal
plants have been included in CITES so far. At least forty medicinal plants from
countries are listed in CITES. A few CITES-listed medicinal plants from India
include:
· eagle wood
(Aquilaria malaccensis) - wood. used to control vomiting and diarrhea;
· yew (Taxus baccata) -
leaf and fruit to control epilepsy, asthma, and bronchitis; and
· Pterocarpus
santalinus-heartwood of this leguminous tree is used as an stringent (to
check bleeding) and diaphoretic (to increase perspiration); fruit antidote for
dysentery.
On March 30, 1994, the Ministry of Commerce prohibited the
export of 46 groups of plants, including their parts and derivatives, most of
which are medicinal plants.
Besides the central government, several state governments and
some pharmaceutical companies have started their own research and development
units and cultivation programs. However, such research programs are invariably
restricted to a selected few species of retail value.
During the past four decades, more attention has been focused on
the evaluation and standardization of plant-derived drugs. The result has been a
broader understanding of such drugs based on their biology and chemistry.
However, Indian investigators have cited the rapidity with which, in China,
experimental results on plants are passed on to clinical investigators, who
provide all support for clinical evaluation of that particular plant. The Indian
investigators concluded that such a strategy has paid good dividends in China
and could be even more rewarding in India where the infrastructure already
exists.
Links to modern medicine
Since independence, India has made sustained efforts, through
successive "Five-Year Plans," to develop the Indian traditional medical systems
(Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani) with the aim of improving the delivery of
healthcare to the Indian population. The 1982 Health Policy initiated efforts to
dovetail the functioning of traditional health practitioners and their health
services in the total healthcare system of the country. In most States, for
every two allopathic doctors, a third post of traditional medical doctor has
been approved in the primary health centers.
Currently there are 460,000 traditional medicine practitioners
in the country. Over 271,000 (223,000 Ayurveda, 30,456 Unani and 18,128 Siddha)
practitioners are registered under the state boards. In addition to private
pharmacies, almost all State Governments have their own pharmacies for
production of standard medicines. There also exist separate directories for
traditional systems of medicine in all states. There are, in all, 215 hospitals
and 14,000 dispensaries in the country devoted to traditional medicine.
There are about 540 important medicinal plants used in different
formulation in India by the Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha healthcare systems. Many
plants are common to all three systems. Several plants may be used either alone
or in combination in the traditional systems. Whatever the combination, the
regulations state that if these medicines are prepared in exactly the same way
as recommended in the ancient Indian medical books and texts, and if they are
preserved in the same way as described therein, then such medicines do not
require approval or registration. Whenever a different manner of preparation is
proposed the medicine is considered a "new" medicine. This will be treated as
any new drug before it is released in the market for use either in the
traditional system of medicine or the modem system of medicine. There is nothing
in the regulations to indicate that the requirements before the release of such
"new" but old herbal medicines are in any way less demanding than for synthetic
medicines
With the introduction of traditional medical systems for primary
healthcare at the level of primary health centers, guidelines and manuals are
being prepared that identify the number and type of drugs to be used for primary
healthcare. Lists of such drugs for each of the Indian systems of medicine have
been prepared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The delay
experienced in reaching these objectives can, in part, be attributed to a lack
of cooperation between botanists, chemists, agronomists, physicians, and
traditional healthcare practitioners to integrate the best features of
traditional and modem medicine. This both defines the problem and specifies the
answer.
It is well-recognized that there is considerable valuable
knowledge about the medicinal uses of plants among the many tribal societies,
especially those living in remote areas where the intrusion of modem society has
been minimal. The Government does not exercise any regulatory control over the
use of such "home remedies," which are used by a majority of the Indian
population. The reports of new successes and confirmations of old remedies has
stimulated research among government and university
institutions.
Links to agriculture
India has no central agency responsible for cultivation,
procurement and regeneration of medicinal plants or to provide data on export
and import status of these plant drugs. An immediate need is to establish
collaboration between the Central and State Ministries of Agriculture and other
relevant Ministries and departments. This would allow those medicinal plants
most in demand to be identified and brought into cultivation if necessary. At
the same time, potentially useful biotechnology developed for food crops could
be considered for enhancing the active constituents of medicinal plants.
Over the long-term Indian agriculture has evolved a dynamic
network of cropping systems that have continually incorporated new crop
varieties to boost production, food security and income. Land under rainfed
agriculture has not benefited to the same extent as irrigated agriculture,
although efforts are being made to develop environmentally tolerant crop
varieties for marginal farmers. Pareek and Gupta (1993) report that the
introduction of medicinal plants has produced significant changes in the
economies of cultivation due to the increasing demand for raw materials in the
country and also for export. For example, higher yields of periwinkle, henbane,
licorice, isabgol, and sarpagandha have been achieved on marginal lands with the
addition of fertilizer. India, with its vast network of public and private
research institutions has a great deal to offer other developing countries with
respect to establishing and integrating medicinal plant cultivation with food
crop production where appropriate. The activity should generate interest of
agronomists and plant geneticists to include in-depth studies of medicinal
plants vis-�-vis existing cropping systems, especially on remote, marginal, and
degraded
lands.
Links to forestry
Forest timber products contribute about 35 percent of the total
forest revenue of the country and exported timber is estimated to be in excess
of $100 million annually. Although it is increasingly recognized that non-wood
forest products (including medicinal plants) constitute a large, often
overwhelming, source of forest revenues from State forests, these resources
continue to be undervalued, and not given due consideration in the development
of forest management plans. Currently surveys do not generally consider
non-timber species, particularly herbaceous species which constitute the
majority of Indian medicinal plants. Since the State forests contain a large
percentage of the medicinal-plant wealth, given their good condition and degree
of protection, their value should not be underestimated. The Forest Departments
in India have an important role to play, they are organized to manage large
forest areas, and given the requisite reorientation of their management
objectives they are probably the agencies best equipped to help conserve and
manage the forest medicinal-plant resources of the country.
Much of the non-timber forest produce is removed by local people
free or at nominal concession rates. The gross value of medicinal-plant products
can only be estimated. Apart from their monetary value, they are of enormous
economic and cultural value to the country in general, and to communities
residing in or near to forests. Medicinal plants growing in forest ecosystems
meet many of the healthcare needs and requirements of the Indian populace. For
example, of the 2000 drug items recorded in the Indian Materia Medica, 1800 are
of plant origin. About 80 percent of the raw materials required in the
manufacture of drugs are forest-based. At present, these are collected in an
unorganized manner and in many cases through private traders. Eight State
Governments have established Forest Corporations to deal with the procurement,
sale and distribution of various forest products. These corporations should, as
part of their functions, organize their activities to procure medicinal plants
from within their own areas and arrange sales inside and outside their own
State. The corporations would be well served by having representatives of ISM,
NGOs and local communities on their board of
directors.
Links to veterinary medicine
Veterinary medicinal has a long tradition in India, with many
references first appearing in the Rig veda. A number of Indian plants have
proven helpful in treating dirresis, calculosis and other urinary disorders in
bulls and rams. They include: varuna (Crateva nurvala), gokhru
(Tribulus terrestris), gadahpurna (Boerhaavia diffusa) and yavani
(Hyoscyamus niger). To control helminths in livestock farmers use palas
(Butea frondosa), and kuda (Holarrhena antidysenterica). All these
plants are included in Selected Medicinal Plants of India, a monograph of
identity, safety and human clinical
usage.
Protecting medicinal-plant biodiversity
In 1970, the Indian Government banned the export of wild-growing
sarpagandha. because of over-exploitation. This ban still holds except when
special government permission is obtained. Further additions to the list can be
made based on the purchases and marketing of medicinal plants by the indigenous
pharmaceutical industry. Since a very large proportion of plants used by these
industries are collected from the wild, high consumption, especially in a manner
that is destructive, is considered a reasonably accurate indicator of the threat
to their survival in the wild. This threat is higher wherever the collecting is
destructive (i.e. whole plant, root, stem, and bark.).
Furthermore, many medicinal plants are threatened because of the
alarming rate of habitat loss and degradation of natural ecosystems. The
traditional healthcare systems (Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha) are conscious of
the decline in raw materials and the need to establish cultivation centers to
maintain supply. Many of the pharmaceutical companies have not yet accepted the
decline in supply as serious.
Many papers have been published on threatened plants of
individual States of India. Jain (1987) identifies 120 medicinal plants that can
be classified as endangered or rare. A total of 30 plant species known for their
medical usage in South India are considered in the "rare and threatened"
priority category. Many other species are threatened because of the alarming
rate of habitat loss and degradation of natural habitats, including:
· aconite
(Aconitum heterophyllum) - root used for fever, cholera, rheumatism, and
fevers;
· Saussurea lappa - root
used for chronic skin disorders;
· agar (Aquillaria
agallocha) - wood used for reducing vomiting and diarrhea, and as a
stimulant;
· lesser yam (Dioscorea
deltoides) - tuber rich in diosgenin (from which steroidal drugs can be
made); it is also used for rheumatic and ophthalmic diseases;
· Justicia beddomei -
whole plant;
· Myristica malabarica -
seed used for ulcers;
· Coptis teeta - rhizome
for bacillary dysentery;
· Dendrobium pauciflorum
- whole plant, leaf; and
· Podophyllum
emodii.
The Foundation for Revitalisation of Local
Health Traditions (FRLHT) has assembled a priority list of 285 medicinal-plant
species of South India. They list 34 species classified as weeds. Many of these
weeds are well-known medicinal plants of indigenous healthcare systems. Because
of unregulated and large-scale destructive collecting, many of the "weeds" could
become threatened. Due to a lack of information on distribution, harvesting
intensities, and population structure of wild medicinal plants the FRHLT has
used the available secondary data to set its conservation priorities. The data
base is being enlarged by adding data on threatened status recorded in the
WCMC's database and also assessments of experts on the rarity of the species.
Preserving Wild Genes. There is a central government
sector initiative for the development of medicinal and aromatic plants currently
in operation (1992-1997). It is being implemented through 16 state agricultural
universities, state horticulture and agriculture departments, regional research
laboratories, and one international agricultural research center. The scheme is
controlled by the Ministry of Agriculture and involves establishment of herbal
gardens, nursery centers, and demonstration seed production centers. Over the
years under the auspices of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research many
research and teaching projects have been funded and carried out by Central
Agricultural Institutes, State Agricultural Universities, and the National
Research Centre.
The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources initiated an All
India Coordinated Research Project on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in 1972. The
project carries out integrated multidisciplinary research studies on 12
mandatory crops (senna, periwinkle, licorice, asgandh, jasmine, opium poppy,
palamarosa, lemongrass, vetiver, rose geranium, patchouli, and isabgol); 10
exotic crops including henbane, chamomile, melissa and anise; and 11 native
species for domestication (swertia, safedmusli, aloe, babchi, mucuna,
pipalanool, satavari, valerian, guggal, galangol and ciloe). Of the thirty four
plants being researched only 4 are considered of importance by industry. There
is obviously a need for greater collaboration if the needs of both and the
nation are to be better served in the future.
An important source of information for creating a list of
threatened medicinal plants is the Red Data Book of Indian Plants. It
lists more than 600 plant species, which have been categorized as extinct,
endangered, rare, or vulnerable. Gupta and Chadha (1995) list 35 important
endangered species amongst the medicinal and aromatic plants of India. They
suggest the species need detailed studies on their population structure,
breeding behavior and habitat protection. Building on this base FRLHT is
establishing a chain of medicinalplant conservation wilderness reserve areas in
the western and eastern Ghats. This nongovernmental initiative is seen as the
first measure of its kind aimed at conserving medicinal-plant genetic resources
in India.
The Indian Medicinal Plants Distribution Databases Network,
brings together the collective data of nine nodal agencies which collect,
preserve, propagate, and use more than 8000 medicinal-plant species, in a chain
of 48 in-situ and ex-situ conservation areas. The agencies
include: the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow for pharmacology;
CIMAP, Lucknow for agro-technology; Regional Research Laboratory, Jammu
for phytochemistry; Publication and Information Directorate, New Delhi for
bibliography; Botanical Survey of India, Dehra Dun for taxonomy; Lok Swasthaya
Parampara Samvardhan Samiti, Coirnbatore for traditional medicine; National
Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute, Trivandrum for traditional
medicine; and Ayurvedic Research Institute, Trivandrum for pharmacognosy. The
Indian Medicinal Plants Distribution Databases Network newsletter disseminates
information on the data each agency possesses as well as other information on
medicinal-plant databases in India and abroad.
The Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Center was established
by the WWF India in 1994 with the full support of the national government. The
Centre will provide information support to government and non-government
programs for environmental conservation in the country. The Indira Gandhi
Conservation Monitoring Center will also provide information to assist in the
implementation of the Biodiversity Convention. In 1995, WCMC had documentation
on 137 Indian medicinal-plant species in 63 Families with 165 references.
In-Situ Conservation. There are no separate policies or
regulations for conserving medicinal plants in India. Their conservation is
generally covered under existing laws, such as the Forest Act and Wild Life
Protection Act (1972), which are enforced by the State Forest Departments and
the Indian government's Directorate of Wildlife Preservation. Furthermore, there
is no designated national agency or department with a clear mandate for the
conservation of medicinal plants. Consequently, there has been no conscious or
systematic effort to date at the government level, to conserve medicinal plants
in-situ. However, the Ministry of Health, has recently started to promote the
establishment of small herbal gardens in educational institutions as a means of
furthering traditional medicine. The Indian Medicinal Plants Genetic Resources
Network is expected to expand in later years to include conservation areas all
over India.
An important recent decision by the Government of India gives an
indigenous Indian tribe the intellectual property rights to the active
ingredient of a plant long known and used by the tribe to combat stress (see Box
6).
Box 6: ‘Indian Ginseng' Brings Royalties for Tribe
New Delhi. An indigenous Indian tribe has been awarded the
intellectual property rights to the active ingredient of a plant long known to
it as helping to combat stress, in a move that the government hopes will help
end the 'piracy' of tribal knowledge by both Indian and foreign drug companies.
The drug jeevani, which is based on this ingredient and
is said also to provide an instant source of energy, has been developed from the
plant Trichopus zeylanicus by the government-owned Tropical Botanical Garden and
Research Institute (TBGRI) in Trivandrum, Kerala. Researchers noticed that the
tribe members habitually ate its raw seeds before undertaking strenuous work.
Arya Vaidhya Pharmacy (AVP), a large manufacturer of Ayurvedic
drugs paid $50,000 for manufacturing rights plans to market jeevani
internationally as a rival to ginseng. The Kani tribe of the Agasthiyar hills in
Kerala will receive half of the know-how fee, and will also receive a share of a
two percent royalty on any future drug sales. This money will go towards 2,500
families of the Kani tribe who will cultivate and supply the plants to AVP at a
price agreed with the TBGRI.
Source: K.S. Jayarama, Nature. Vol. 381: 16 May 1996.
To strengthen the in-situ conservation of the
medicinal-plant resource base in South India, FRLHT is coordinating a major
medicinal-plant conservation initiative. The core activities are to establish a
network of 30 in-situ centers in the three states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and
Kerala during 19931997. FRLHT's conservation research strategy departs from the
conventional approach. Their goals include:
· inventory
medicinal plants used both in tribal medicine and the codified traditional
systems of medicine (earlier efforts looked at only the economically important
medicinal plants);
· document natural distribution
of medicinal plants and identify sites for in-situ and ex-situ
conservation;
· document and contribute to the
revitalization of local health traditions associated with the biodiversity of
medicinal plants; and
· design in-situ and
ex-situ conservation programs that are people oriented and not merely
industry-oriented. FRLHT is a pioneer in in-situ conservation and has expanded
the scope of ex-situ conservation and cultivation.
Ex-Situ Conservation and Cultivation. In earlier times,
medicinal-plant cultivation was confined to private gardens while plants for
general use were collected from forest and village lands. Systematic cultivation
was introduced by the East India Company in 1787. In 1930, the government
established a program for the development of medicinal and aromatic plants on a
proper scientific basis. Among species cultivated in Kashmir under the Medicinal
and Food Poisons Enquiry Committee of the Indian Council of Agricultural
Research were:
· foxglove (Digitalis
lanata), leaf used as cardiac stimulant
· henbane (Hyoscyamus
sp.), leaf and stem used as sedative (narcotic) belladonna (Atropa
belladonna), root and leaf used as diuretic (increases urine), sedative (lessens
excitement, nervousness, tension), and anodyne (pain killer).
After independence in 1948, the Indian government set up various
organizations for utilizing and cultivating the vast unexplored resources of
medicinal and aromatic plants. Presently this work is being handled by the
Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Regional Research
Laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, various
agricultural universities, and state horticultural and agricultural departments.
Research over the last four decades has focused on approximately
60 selected commercial species for industrial use, of which 40 are medicinal
plants. Raychaudhuri and Ahmad (1992) have identified 144 species of medicinal
plant that they believe are suitable for cultivation, 63 of which can be
successfully grown in north India. Considering that 7000 species are reportedly
in medical use by Indian Medical System and folk practitioners, current research
efforts can only be considered minimal. However, medicinal-plant research does
not want to go the way of agricultural crops. For instance, it has been
estimated that 50 years ago, Indian farmers were growing some 30,000 varieties
of rice; however, Maheshwari (1987) predicts that the number of varieties grown
will have been reduced to no more than 50 by the year 2000 as a result of
agricultural modernization.
Renewed interest in the medicinal properties and potential low
cost of cultivation of sarpagandha, has given added impetus to conserving the
remaining wild variant populations in the forests of the Himalayan foothills and
coastal peninsula. Two distinct subspecies, that grow in different environments
have been recognized in sarpagandha. Various stocks from Dehra Dun (Himalayas)
and Kerala, Karnataka and Goa (western Ghats) are being cultivated for reserpine
and related alkaloids at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New
Delhi. The plant is usually propagated from seeds, although stem and root
cuttings can also be used. Seeds are grown in nursery beds and transplanted
during the rainy season. Irrigation is usually required during the year. The
roots are harvested during winter. Cultivars; may be harvested at 18 months and
may be intercropped with onion and garlic in the first year profitably. Its
demand for fertilizer and irrigation is low, and it grows well on marginal
soils.
FRLHF is promoting ex-situ conservation of medicinal plants to
conserve rare, endangered and vulnerable species which are threatened in their
natural habitats. They have established 15 ex-situ centers in the States of
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala. This work is being supervised by
environmental and health NGOs in the region. Each center has a nursery for
propagation, a herbal garden, and a gene bank. In addition, each center is
responsible for creating awareness and encouraging the use of locally available
medicinal-plant products in primary healthcare and encouraging farmers to grow
such species of medicinal plant for which there is an industry demand.
In 1991 the Tropical Forest Research Institute at Jabalpur,
Madhya Pradesh established a medicinalplant germplasm collection with 550
species of medicinal plants found in the dry deciduous forests of Satpura,
Maikal, Vindhya, and the eastern Ghat Mountain ranges. These regions contain the
largest number of medicinal plants used in the Ayurveda. Surveys classify plants
as common, threatened, endangered, and rare. Collections of seeds, rhizomes,
roots, and cuttings are taken for cultivation in the Institute's experimental
nursery as part of a non-wood forest produce program. The intent is to return
plants back to their original habitat for in-situ conservation in collaboration
with State Forestry Departments, as well as provide local farmers and
pharmaceutical industries with high quality breeding stock.
The Arya Vaidya Sala at Kottakal, Kerala combines the multiple
facets of the traditional medicine sector-a family based, hereditary knowledge
tradition, hospital and teaching facilities, manufacturing and research and
development work. Based on its own usage statistics and experiences with
declining availability of plant materials, the Arya Vaidya Sala has identified
10 priority species in collaboration with the International Development Research
Centre (IDRC), Canada. They are engaged in a comprehensive program of mapping
the ten natural stocks, developing ex-situ and farmer-based cultivation
strategies and investigating the therapeutic action of these species (see Table
11).
In addition, IDRC initiated in 1994 a Medicinal Plant Research
Network operating out of its New Delhi office. The network has adopted a
proactive, user-based biodiversity conservation strategy and efforts are
targeted at undertaking research partnerships with existing users of the
resource baselocal communities and indigenous industry. Focal areas of research
include folk traditions and knowledge, in-situ conservation, developing
appropriate harvesting and cultivation techniques, improving quality control,
storage and processing techniques.
Table 11: Species in Ayurvedic Medicines and Quantities
Used
Species
No. Ayurvedic Medicines
Kg. Used
Baliospermum montanum (root)
27
1000
Celastrus paniculatus (root, leaf)
15
540
Coscinium fenestratrum (bark, root)
70
3300
Cratavea nurvala (root, stem bark)
13
1840
Embelia ribes (fruit)
75
3030
Hemidesmus indicus (root, leaf, stem bark)
30
19000
Holostemma ada-kodien (root)
40
3860
Rubia cordifolia (root leaf, stem)
40
4200
Saraca asoca (bark, flower, seed)
3
5310
Trichosanthes lobata (root, flower, leaf, seed)
32
5800
Source: Bajal and Williams. 1995.
A number of other Indian government institutions and private
agencies are actively engaged in medicinal-plant cultivation and conservation
programs. They include: Indian
Institute of Horticultural Research, National Research Centre,
Central Council of Research in Indian Systems of Medicine, State Ministry's of
Agriculture and Forest, State Agricultural Universities, and the Lalbagh,
Calcutta, Ootacamund and Lucknow Botanic Gardens.
It is recognized that with an expanding medicinal-plant
cultivation program high density plantings, especially if monocropped, are
likely to require pesticides to control insect pests, pathogens and weeds.
Furthermore, it is well-established that a number of agrochernicals have created
health hazards in their application to crops and toxic effects of cultivated
foods. When and where such products might be used on medicinal plants in the
future, Parikh (1993) recommends readily biodegradable plant-based agroproducts
be used to control insect pests. India has a very effective biocide in the
common neem tree mentioned above. Active compounds act mainly as hormone
blockers that send insect lifecycles down dead-end trails so the populations
crash. They can be easily prepared by users and applied at minimal
cost.
Medicinal Plants: Rescuing a Global Heritage (WB, 1997, 80 p.)
4. Conclusions
(introduction...)
China and India
Socioeconomic impacts
Traditional knowledge
Information transfer
Policy and regulatory considerations
Economic considerations
Conservation considerations
Research and development
Cultivation
Medicinal Plants: Rescuing a Global Heritage (WB, 1997, 80 p.)
4. Conclusions
From the experiences in China and India it can be seen that
medicinal plants constitute one of the important overlooked areas of
international development. The plants represent a form of biodiversity with the
potential to do much good, and not just in the field of healthcare. Indeed, the
production and processing of medicinal plants offers the possibility of
fundamentally upgrading the lives and well-being of peoples in many rural
regions. It can also help the environment and protect habitats and biodiversity
throughout the developing world.
Here, for instance, are some of the apparent lessons on why the
medicinal plants deserve serious consideration.
Value. Of all the resources in the tropics, medicinal
plants are among the most valuable. They sell not by the ton nor even by the
kilo, but usually by the grain. They include some of the most sought after
natural products. There is a rising export trade and an ever increasing local
demand.
Frangibility. Of all the traditional knowledge to be
found in Africa, Asia and Latin America, that dealing with medicine is among the
most vulnerable, and is being lost perhaps faster than any other body of
indigenous intellectual heritage. Yet it is also among the most useful to the
nations themselves as well as to the rest of the world.
Helping the Poor. Typically, medicinal plants are more
than just high in value, they are non-perishable and are easy to transport and
handle (compared to, say, food crops or tree products). Thus they can be
produced in small plots or in remote areas where other options are minimal. This
feature they share with products from the opium poppy or coca plant, and
medicinal plants are a likely source of alternatives. Indeed, the organized
production of certain medicinal plants could help millions stay on the land, and
it might even lure millions more back from the cities.
Conserving Natural Habitats. Medicinal plants are among
the best candidates for helping conserve natural habitats. The suggestion has
been made, for example, that the organized production of forest medicinal plants
in India's tiger reserves will help make the reserves financially
self-sustaining without affecting the animal life. It would also provide local
jobs and may swing the public's attitudes solidly in favor of protecting the
reserves, especially from land-grabbers. Around the developing world,
opportunities like this are legion, but they are not being exploited while
plants, animals and whole habitats plunge toward extinction.
Increasing Sustainability. Of all the possibilities for
making agroforestry work, medicinal plants are among the best. The various vines
and herbs and shrubs lend themselves to mixed cultivation systems better than to
the monocultures that produce cereals and roots and pastures. Some, such as
ginseng, work as understory crops that can transform the economics of, and
attitudes towards, tree planting and conservation forestry. After all, a ton of
ginseng root sells for a quarter of a million dollars, wholesale.
Healthcare and Rural Well-Being. Of all the options for
helping the well-being of the poorest segments of global society, the medicinal
plants are among the best. Whether or not the efficacy is up to the standards of
the West is irrelevant when the people cannot afford pharmaceuticals, as is the
case for several billion souls. Inexpensive and seemingly effective herbal
treatments exist for skin ailments, minor pain, infections, anemia, other
nutritional disorders, and many more complaints that are mundane rather than
lifethreatening.
China and India
So far, only China and India have solidly grasped the
possibilities inherent in medicinal plants. In its own way each is starting to
confront the threat to its medicinal-plant heritage.
As of now, China and India are the only countries where
government policies seek to integrate the traditional and Western medical
systems at all levels of healthcare. This has put an especially heavy burden on
their stocks of wild medicinal plants. These plants are becoming increasingly
rare or expensive due to overharvesting and loss of natural habitat.
With no precedents for medicinal-plant conservation and
cultivation research, the examples of China and India must serve as the role
models for the rest of the world. This is important also because either India or
China could become the world's largest pharmaceutical market. Together they
would dominate the traditional medicine usage worldwide.
In China it is the government that is endeavoring to utilize
available traditional field and clinical knowledge at all levels of
medicinal-plant production: breeding, cultivation, harvesting, processing and
marketing. This experience offers many lessons to other developing countries.
India, with its free-market system, has the necessary
infrastructure to support the integration of the two healthcare systems. So far,
however, there has been little effort to bring together public research
institutions (government and university) and the private sector (industry and
NGOs) to focus on the plight of the healing herbs.
As it now stands, local collectors in India receive minimal
benefit from wild-plant collections. They are unorganized and typically sell
their products into markets controlled by unscrupulous middlemen. To date, there
has been no significant effort to organize small rural enterprises that can
provide income and employment to rural women and men for cultivating, processing
and marketing herbal
products.
Socioeconomic impacts
Of all the possibilities for improving the lives of the rural
poor, medicinal plants are one of the best. It is unlikely that the vast
majority of peoples in developing countries will ever be self-reliant in their
primary healthcare needs without recourse to these plants. Indeed, it is
unlikely that drastic social, technical or economic changes are going to upset
the medicinalplant situation in the majority of developing countries during the
next decade. Hence, the establishment of local herbal-product industries would
go a long way to provide for local healthcare needs.
Women in many parts of the world are the key to the future
integration of traditional and Western medical practices. They must play a
pivotal role in defining future medicinalplant conservation, cultivation and
enhancement strategies.
Immediate research efforts should be directed towards those
traditional medicines that may be of use: (i) in combating "refractory diseases"
for which Western medicine has no longlasting remedies; and (ii) as supplements
to Western drug products.
An important first step to characterize this informal sector is
the development of appropriate value indicators that reflect the perceptions of
different stakeholder groups. Such indicators should include aspects of
indigenous medical, cultural, ecological, and environmental values placed upon
medicinal plants by local people in developing countries. The investment costs
would be relatively small, and the acquired knowledge and experience would prove
useful when the diversification stage is
reached.
Traditional knowledge
It is the rural people who have the most to lose if
medicinal-plant diversity continues to decline. It is also the rural people who
have the most to gain by the establishment of programs to conserve, cultivate
and market medicinal plants.
The protection and revival of traditional medicine knowledge and
practice in thousands of ethnic communities is an important means of providing
affordable and sustainable healthcare. The knowledge that traditional health
practitioners, women and farmers can bring to identifying, implementing and
managing medicinal-plant conservation and cultivation programs is seldom sought
or utilized. Consequently, local health traditionsmany of which are oral in
nature and therefore largely undocumented--are being lost. Many of those rely on
medicinal plants.
The first step in developing a successful strategy to conserve,
enhance and sustainably utilize medicinal-plant resources is to document the
medicinal plants and their use in herbal formulations, and establish cultivation
programs in collaboration with farmers and agricultural research
stations.
Information transfer
Of all the developing nations, only China and India have so far
officially accepted traditional medicine as an integral part of the formal
health system. However, an increasing number of developing countries (Ghana and
Zimbabwe among them) recognize the benefits of preserving and more fully
exploiting traditional medicine, and are actively seeking ways and means of
integrating the traditional and Western medicine systems.
China and India can play an important role in transferring
knowledge (South-North as well as South-South) relating to medicinal-plant
conservation, cultivation methodologies, harvesting, storage, processing and
marketing. However, although these two may serve as role models, Africa and
Latin America have their own medicinal plants and traditional healthcare
systems. Moreover, different countries have different cultural backgrounds, and
healthcare needs.
The revolution in electronic communication is providing
unprecedented opportunities -to learn about and to efficiently manage resources.
This should allow traditional expertise to be more readily integrated with
Western medical knowledge in addressing local, regional and global healthcare
issues.
Various international agencies-among them WCMC, IUCN, WWT, IDRC,
and UNESCOare involved to some extent in medicinal-plant biodiversity
conservation. The International Council for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants
(ICMAP) was formed in 1993 and includes representatives of supporting and
affiliated organizations. Recently a Medicinal Plant Specialist Group was formed
that concentrates its efforts on the medicinal-plant species with high
conservation priority. All such agencies should be encouraged to include efforts
to establish cultivation programs as part of their medicinalplant conservation
objectives.
The use of advanced information and communications systems (GIS
database, multimedia) can lead to a greater awareness of, and sensitivity to,
indigenous medicinalplant
knowledge.
Policy and regulatory considerations
With the possible exception of China, developing countries lack
a national or regional agency with an exclusive mandate for medicinal-plant
conservation and cultivation. Action is needed to produce clearly-defined
policies to regulate medicinal-plant conservation, cultivation, and trade
practices. This requires that governments recognize the inter-sectoral
relationship between natural resource management, agriculture and forestry,
trade and commerce, and healthcare.
Recognizing the widespread reliance of rural and urban peoples
on medicinal plants for their basic healthcare needs, a biodiversity policy
should explicitly identify the importance of sustainable use of medicinal plants
and their habitat conservation.
An active education and awareness program that recognizes the
needs of indigenous peoples, local communities (especially women), private
businesses and government agencies (state and national) is imperative if
regulatory policies are to promote successfully the conservation and protection
of medicinal plants.
Clear policies and legislation that recognize the legal rights
of individuals and communities who use and depend on medicinal plants for the
healthcare needs should be affirmed by governments to protect the rights of
customary knowledge holders.
To inhibit trade of threatened and vulnerable medicinal-plant
species both developing and developed countries must create a statutory
framework and then fully fund its implementation. A closer link with CITES would
be appropriate.
A major constraint to the identification of national policies
and regulations is the lack of national inventories and prescription guidelines
(pharmacopoeias).
Economic considerations
Medicinal plants already contribute substantially to the poor
people's well-being and will continue to do so. Indeed, without recourse to
medicinal plants it seems unlikely that the vast majority of peoples in
developing countries will ever be able to meet their primary healthcare needs.
Two separate commerces in medicinal plants, the formal and
informal markets, co-exist side by side. The first is regulated by governments
(at least to some extent) and provides both crude and processed herbal products
to the public with a certain measure of quality control. The informal market, on
the other hand, operates without oversight. It provides basic healthcare needs
to the majority of peoples in many developing countries but without consumer
protections.
The informal market is extremely difficult to evaluate. Many
healthcare needs are provided without a cash transaction. Instead payment is
made in labor or other "in-kind" services. Furthermore, the unregulated informal
market has yet to recognize the need to be involved in conservation programs.
Neither China nor India have any comprehensive understanding of the extent or
economic value of the informal market - a commerce that must contribute billions
of dollars annually to their economies. As difficult as it might be to document
these transactions, attempts must be made, even if they result in only rough
estimates.
The case has been made recently that the market returns from
bioprospecting are insufficient and the incentives for habitat conservation by
private pharmaceutical research to be modest. Such might be the case for
multinational pharmaceutical companies. However, such is not the case for the
established traditional pharmaceutical companies. for the foreseeable future,
they will rely totally on medicinal plants for drug preparation. Consequently
their incentives to be involved in conservation and cultivation are legitimate
and economically necessary. At the same time it has been suggested the need for
new economic models and strategies for the world's agricultural and
pharmaceutical industries offers opportunities for enlightened bioprospecting
that replaces the spectrum of paternalism with the spectrum of equity.
Recognizing the needs of pharmaceutical industries (where
present) to meet the increasing public demand for plant-derived drugs, every
effort must be made to promote sustainable production and procurement of
unadulterated raw material. The economic advantages of using domestic raw
materials must consider job creation opportunities in agriculture and industry,
and the availability of affordable plant-derived drugs for healthcare. Financial
investment in the establishment of developing country R&D capability should
encourage a greater interest for conservation and cultivation by local
pharmaceutical industries.
Apparently no studies have been carried out in either China or
India to document total annual tonnage purchased, sustainability of raw material
supply, future trends in hospitaland consumer use, and industry growth
potential. Neither is there any information to identify the precise problems
facing the industry.
Even though the trade cannot be quantified, some measure of its
size can be deduced by considering what would happen if supplies of
medicinal-plant raw materials were eliminated. The local (and especially poor)
populations would have to rely on synthetic drugs-local and/or imported. The
result would be a potentially catastrophic blow to productivity, balance of
payments, national debt and gross domestic
product.
Conservation considerations
Looking forward, it is clear that national governments,
foreign-aid agencies, and development banks must think about creating
infrastructures for the conservation, and cultivation of medicinal plants. These
social and commercial underpinnings are needed to link the production of
medicinal plants with the provision of affordable healthcare to those in need.
Such a step will enhance the rational convergence between traditional and modem
medicine that is increasingly being advocated. In almost every case conservation
will have to provide a big part of the production.
As has been noted, medicinal plants are predominantly harvested
from the wild. This means that production is often unpredictable and supplies
can quickly vary between scarcity and over-supply. This is not a good situation
in a time when demand is dramatically increasing,
The probable loss of genetic diversity within each species is a
special concern. As with all plant species, certain specimens or locations will
have exceptional levels of activity. It seems likely that the medicinally more
active stands will attract the greatest exploitation. This could destroy the
effectiveness of the species. Medicinal-plant biodiversity in developing
countries is often poorly characterized, and there is a critical lack of
research on management methods that combine biological, physical, economic and
social variables.
The unsustainable, unregulated and indiscriminate harvesting of
medicinal plants is being compounded by the very poor level of awareness of the
biology and ecology of the species concerned. Even the collectors and traders
who make their livelihood from such species often know little. Thus, large
quantities of medicinal plants go to waste during such operations as logging,
slashand-burn, plowing, and the burning of what look like mere "weeds."
Globally, the number of medicinal plants currently protected
under rare and endangered species legislation is minuscule. Signatories to the
Convention on Biological Diversity are obliged to protect their medicinal-plant
resources, but often lack the necessary resources and skilled staff to do so,
and may even be unaware of their importance.
While natural ecosystems such as forests, wetlands and
grasslands can be protected by legislation, many other medicinal-plant
habitats-such as marginal, remote, wastelands, roadsides, or even
gardens-cannot. An education program developed in collaboration with local
collectors, dispensaries, and beneficiaries should be a priority. The intention
should be to reverse the rising tendency to exploit unprotected wild stocks with
scant respect for the adverse effects such random extraction has on natural
populations. Such a program should clearly identify the value of medicinal
plants, the reasons for conserving the habitats, the close link to individual
and family health needs, and the longterm economic returns that can accrue from
protecting medicinal plants and their associated wild
species.
Research and development
It is important that the development, or expansion, of a
botanically-based pharmaceutical industry be backed by active research and
development. This will permit successful transfer and adaptation of technology
on a north-south or south-south basis and ensure proper growth and maintenance
of the industry. The outcome would be the production of:
· standardized
traditional medicines, galenicals, and extracts; · the formulation and development of dosage
forms; · the development of new preparations
based on traditional pharmacopoeias; ·
research and development in processing and formulation; and · basic chemical and pharmacological
studies.
There is a need to document the ideal season and time for
harvesting of bulk collections and storage conditions necessary to protect the
active principals and preserve their optimum therapeutic value. This is best
achieved if they are cultivated and processed under quality-controlled
conditions preferably close to the site of harvest. Homogeneity of product and
correct drying often represents the most delicate and essential step in the
entire manufacturing process.
Technical assistance will be required. The introduction of
pilot-plant processing facilities requires investment. This perhaps may be
achieved through various forms of joint industrial venture between local
sponsors and with foreign partners. The link between medicinal-plant
conservation, affordable healthcare, industrial development, and 4 billion
stakeholders should be appealing to potential
investors.
Cultivation
For the immediate future, medicinal-plant farming will be a
vital complement and alternative to collecting plants from the wild. Such
cultivation will permit improved reliability of supply, and uniform quality of
raw materials whose properties can be standardized. Presently cultivation is
constrained by a lack of proven methodologies and research funds.
The breeding of medicinal-plant cultivars with desirable
agronomic and therapeutic chemical derivatives makes it possible to conserve and
selectively utilize highly valuable in-situ germplasm, and ex-situ
germplasm in botanic gardens, and in field seedbanks. Cultivation will permit
production of uniform materials whose properties can be standardized and from
which crude drugs can be obtained unadulterated.
As of now, there are few proven or transferable cultivation
methodologies for medicinal plants. Data on plants held in botanic gardens is
most readily accessible and a useful starting point. However, the knowledge and
collaboration of women, farmers, and traditional health practitioners would be
very helpful in identifying, implementing and managing future medicinal-plant
cultivation. Many medicinal plants grow well on marginal, remote, or degraded
lands with low monetary inputs. Needed are intensive studies on selected
medicinal plants to determine optimum environmental requirements for sustainable
production. These should be done in collaboration with local farmers.
Farmers and rural communities also have an important role to
play developing new sustainable cultivation practices that make medicinal plants
compatible with existing food cropping systems and create income generation
opportunities to larger numbers of poor people.
The breeding of improved cultivars adapted to different
agro-ecological regions will allow cultivation of medicinal plants under a wide
range of conditions outside the present sites of collection. An objective,
pragmatic approach is required to selecting a realistic number species among the
many hundreds potentially available for cultivation trials. The needs,
quantities, and frequency of use by traditional health practitioners, women, and
pharmaceutical industries in each developing country must be taken into account.
Of all the new frontiers of agriculture, the cultivation of
medicinal plants is among the most powerful for doing good for the world. It has
the possibility of contributing to all the above-mentioned features: of
providing the poor with a (legal) route out of poverty, of saving a heritage of
human knowledge and putting it to global use, of revitalizing the economies of
run-down rural regions, of saving natural biodiversity as distinct as the Bengal
tiger, and of improving the output from tree plantations and natural forests of
various kinds. In a sense, medicinal plants can become a financial and
biological underpinning that makes numerous agricultural and forestry production
systems-including some that are the most fragile and worrisome to the
world-sustainable.
All in all, medicinal-plant conservation and cultivation
research and development programs can have a major impact by increasing
community participation, income generation, poverty alleviation, and affordable
healthcare.
Medicinal Plants: Rescuing a Global Heritage (WB, 1997, 80 p.)
