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Medicinal Plants at Risk
By Emily Roberson
Native Plant Conservation Campaign Director
March 2008
Description
Medicinal plants grow naturally around us. Over centuries, cultures around the world
have learned how to use plants to fight illness and maintain health. These readily
available and culturally important traditional medicines form the basis of an accessible and
affordable health-care regime and are an important source of livelihood for indigenous and rural populations.
Increasingly, medicinal species that reside in natural areas have received scientific and
commercial attention. In the United States, of the top 150 prescription drugs, at least 118 are
based on natural sources. A child suffering from leukemia in 1960 faced a 10 percent chance
of remission; by 1997, the likelihood of remission had been increased to 95 percent thanks to
two drugs derived from a wild plant native to Madagascar.
But we still know little about the treasure trove inhabiting our wild places. As of 1995, less
than 1 percent of all tropical plant species had been screened for potential pharmaceutical applications.
As medicinal plants receive increased scientific and commercial attention, there is
increasing pressure on the wild plant populations from which most medicinal plants
are harvested. Overharvesting has placed many medicinal species at risk of extinction.
Commercial exploitation has also sometimes led to traditional medicines becoming
unavailable to the indigenous peoples that have relied on them for centuries or millennia.
Pages:19
[thanks-thanks]pdf,787KB,http://www.mediafire.com/?xad7rnae4l755t9[/thanks-thanks]
By Emily Roberson
Native Plant Conservation Campaign Director
March 2008
Description
Medicinal plants grow naturally around us. Over centuries, cultures around the world
have learned how to use plants to fight illness and maintain health. These readily
available and culturally important traditional medicines form the basis of an accessible and
affordable health-care regime and are an important source of livelihood for indigenous and rural populations.
Increasingly, medicinal species that reside in natural areas have received scientific and
commercial attention. In the United States, of the top 150 prescription drugs, at least 118 are
based on natural sources. A child suffering from leukemia in 1960 faced a 10 percent chance
of remission; by 1997, the likelihood of remission had been increased to 95 percent thanks to
two drugs derived from a wild plant native to Madagascar.
But we still know little about the treasure trove inhabiting our wild places. As of 1995, less
than 1 percent of all tropical plant species had been screened for potential pharmaceutical applications.
As medicinal plants receive increased scientific and commercial attention, there is
increasing pressure on the wild plant populations from which most medicinal plants
are harvested. Overharvesting has placed many medicinal species at risk of extinction.
Commercial exploitation has also sometimes led to traditional medicines becoming
unavailable to the indigenous peoples that have relied on them for centuries or millennia.
Pages:19
[thanks-thanks]pdf,787KB,http://www.mediafire.com/?xad7rnae4l755t9[/thanks-thanks]
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