ADVANTAGES OF MEDICINAL PLANTS

Resources and Distribution

Medicinal Plants Bioresources Forest-based medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) are an essential part of traditional health care systems. Their gathering and cultivation provide a critical source of income for many rural communities, especially landless poor and marginalized farmers. MAPs are also inextricably linked to the region's natural biodiversity. Unfortunately, MAPs are increasingly threatened by various environmental, socioeconomic and institutional problems. At the same time traditional and indigenous knowledge about these plants is weakening and, in some cases, vanishing altogether. While attempts have been made (both at local and national levels) to address these issues, they have suffered from inadequate funding, a lack of government prioritization, and insufficient information sharing and coordination among stakeholders. After a number of years of supporting research on MAPs around the world by organizations like IDRC, Ford Foundation, and others a number of networks such as the Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Program in Asia (MAPS) have been established in Asia.

The main goal of the Forest Medicinal Plants (FMP) is to institute a system of long-term sustainable and equitable use of MAPs. The objective is to improve resource conservation and livelihood security in rural and marginalized communities. The mechanism is the design, support and coordination of a holistic research program to strengthen linkages between stakeholders within the MAP production to consumption chain. This is being achieved through strategic research, partnership building and the promotion of regional and international networking. MAPS's focus currently encompasses the entire South Asian region, with ongoing plans to reach out to other parts of Asia. Through regional, national and local partners, including government organizations (GOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), national research institutions and universities, MAPS plans to work with regional network of expertise in community-based MAP conservation, participatory research, and documentation.

Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs): Benefits & Challenges

Traditional, Affordable Health Care

South Asia is home to many rich, traditional systems of medicine. Ayurvedic methods date back to 5000 B.C. Along with the Unani, Siddha and Tibetan systems, they remain an important source of everyday health and livelihood for tens of millions of people. Medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs), including trees, shrubs, grasses and vines, are a central resource for these traditional health systems, as well as for pharmaceutical (or allopathic) medicines. There are more than 8,000 plant species in South Asia with known medicinal uses.

Medicinal plants are an accessible, affordable and culturally appropriate source of primary health care for more than 80% of Asia's population (WHO). Marginalized, rural and indigenous people, who can not afford or access formal health care systems, are especially dependent on these culturally familiar, technically simple, financially affordable and generally effective traditional medicines. As such, there is widespread interest in promoting traditional health systems to meet primary health care needs. This is especially true in South Asia, as prices of modern medicines spiral and governments find it increasingly difficult to meet the cost of pharmaceutical-based health care. Throughout the region, there is strong and sustained public support for the protection and promotion of the cultural and spiritual values of traditional medicines.

Widespread Demand for MAPs

Conservative estimates put the monetary value of MAP-related global trade at over 60 billion USD (Govt. of India, 2000; Nagpal & Karki, 2004). With increasing popular demand for medicinal plants, both in South Asia and internationally, this trade is expected to grow to 5 trillion by the year 2050 (FRLHT, 1996). Besides health benefits, MAPs also provide crucial livelihood options for millions of rural people in South Asia, particularly women, tribal peoples, and the very poor. India is the centre of South Asia's export trade in medicinal plants, and in this country alone, it is estimated that the collection and processing of medicinal plants contributes to at least 35 million workdays of employment a year. Unfortunately, while demand rises, inequitable trade practices have meant that only a small margin of the profits from MAPs trickle down to the collectors and harvesters. Highly developed illegal trading networks in Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Myanmar control the raw MAPs trade, through lax border controls. Despite this, no regional collaboration in implementing international covenants relating to biodiversity exists to stem this growing illegal market.

Impacts of Commercialization

The expansion of unregulated trade and commercial use of MAPs poses a major threat to biodiversity in the region. Local communities tend to collect the highest value or most popular plant species, leading to over-harvesting or species extinction. Even when MAP species are safely cultivated, if done with mono-cropping systems, local biodiversity can be weakened. Finally, as 95 % of MAPs are harvested and collected in wild, the alarming levels of deforestation and ecosystem degradation in the region are also contributing to a decline in MAPs. Combined, all of these factors have severely reduced the availability of medicinal plant ingredients and the overall environmental sustainability of the region. Along with the deterioration of resources, the cultural heritage surrounding MAP use is being eroded. Unstandardized expertise and knowledge of traditional systems of medicine, as well as inadequate processing and storage facilities, can result in ineffective or unsafe treatments. The absence of institutional support, appropriate validation systems, and quality control protocol for indigenous health practices, threatens valuable MAP knowledge and use practices, as well as public health.

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Management Systems

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Uses and Value-Added

BENEFITS OF MEDICINAL PLANTS

TERMINOLOGY (extracted from Nagpal & Karki, 2004)

At the outset, it would be relevant to explain some of the terms commonly used in the context of medicinal plants and their by-products.

Phytomedicines: Plant-based pharmaceutical products with proven medical efficacy, phytomedicines are generally prescription drug products with formal market authorization involving detailed toxicological and clinical trials. According to a study (Kate, Laird 1999), 18% of the world’s top 150 prescription drugs are derived from plant sources.

Herbal remedies: Covering a broad spectrum from basic formulae applied by traditional healers to sophisticated formulations sold alongside other over-the-counter (OTC) medicines in western pharmacies as capsules, pills or liquid tonics, they are also classified as medicines in most European countries.

Herbal Teas and Infusions: These reflect one of the most basic and popular ways of using medicinal herbs throughout the world. They are imbibed as hot water infusions and sold in the form of tea bags or in granulated form. Many herbal teas are sold as single item products but combination products are becoming increasingly popular. Unless they attempt to make therapeutic claims they are not considered medicines and are not subject to prior market approval.

Homeopathic Drugs: They are medicines derived from plant, mineral and animal sources and used in extremely dilute amounts, generally in globule form.

Ayurvedic drugs: Ayurveda is a South Asian, holistic therapeutic concept, based not only on medical therapy, but including all aspects of the life cycle. Medicinal plants are hardly ever used for their specific curative agents – in most cases, a number of different drugs with varying effects are administered.

Dietary supplements: These refer to a range of food supplements of both plant as well as animal origin embracing most non-licensed herbal remedies, and comprising a major component of the OTC medicine market, which does not require prior marketing approval. Health claims are not generally allowed for such products.

Functional foods: This term can broadly be interpreted to imply any food or beverage which makes some claim to enhance one’s physical or mental health and well being, and to achieve demonstrable benefit beyond adequate nutritional effects to one or more target functions in the body. They are to be distinguished from dietary supplements in that they are not taken in pill or capsule form but compose part of the normal diet.

Nutraceuticals: Given that most regulators prohibit use of the terms medicines, drugs or pharmaceuticals in the context of unlicensed herbal remedies and dietary supplements, the term nutraceutical is a cross between nutrition and pharmaceutical. Originally coined in the US, this term is becoming increasingly popular in Europe and in other parts of the world, and refers to a wide range of products using both plant and animal based medicinal extracts.

Cosmeceuticals: These topical cosmetic-pharmaceutical hybrids are intended to enhance the health and beauty of the skin.

Aromatherapy Oils: These are essential oils used for therapeutic rather than solely fragrance purposes. Correctly used, they promote balance and harmony between mind and body and may support other applications of medicinal plants effectively. Aromatherapy can be used in a variety of ways: massage, bath, shower, inhalation, burner, perfume, lotion etc.

Modern western medicine: A system, which has been in existence for around 300 years, this seeks to fight, mitigate, or eliminate symptoms of diseases through a calculated allopathic application of agents or combinations of different substances. Unlike traditional medicine, it does not adopt a holistic approach; rather, healing effects are achieved by applying agents opposite to the diseases they are intended to cure.

Popular or folk medicine: A non-institutionalised, individual, family or tribal use of medicinal plants passed down from generation to generation, this is the oldest form of medical therapy that has survived in most countries till date.

Alternative medicine: Already institutionalised to a large extent globally, this forms a link between folk medicine and modern western medicine. Many of these healing concepts date back to well before the advent of modern medicine. With the rapid and enormous progress of scientifically based modern western medicine, these were, however largely repressed. The last couple of decades have, notwithstanding, seen a global resurgence of these alternative medicinal systems, some of the best known being homeopathy, Ayurveda, and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

Medicinal and Aromatic Plants: The dividing line between a medicinal and an aromatic plant is very blurred, and many plants are used in both, pharmaceutical as well as fragrance industries. Actually all aromatic plants are medicinal but not all medicinal plants are aromatic. It is also relevant to note here that a wide variety of inter-relationships exist between each of the above categories/sub sectors, e.g. peppermint is used in the production of herbal teas, fragrance flavours, and as a base for well known branded over-the counter (OTC) medicines.

Medicinal Plants Resources: The Basis of Traditional System of Medicine (TSM)

Worldwide, it is estimated that there are an estimated 21,000 medicinal plants. They are more concentrated in the global biodiversity ‘hot-spots’ such as the Amazon rainforest of South America, the eastern Himalayas and Western Ghats in south Asia, and the Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of East Africa. Medicinal herbs, shrubs and trees are widely used both in the developed and developing world for preparing traditional remedies that find both domestic and commercial usage. In tropical Africa, for example, more than 4,000 plant species are used for medicinal purposes, and 50,000 tons of medicinal plants are consumed annually in the region. WHO has estimated that up to 80 per cent of people in the developing world are dependant upon traditional systems medicines primarily because of their easy accessibility, wide affordability and cultural familiarity. In fact, as up to 40% of the world’s poor have no access to the government health services, traditional and folk medicine is the only medicine available to them.

Multiple Benefits of Medicinal Plants:

MPs offer a wide range of subsistence, cultural and monetary benefits to people in the world. They provide affordable means of primary health care to poor and marginalized people, especially in impoverished rural areas. In some countries like China, Nepal & India, they are an important revenue generating resources providing critical income to economically marginalized and indigenous people. But most important, in a condition of sustainable harvesting and optimal usage, the medicinal plants could prove to be a model resource that can benefit both the environment and livelihoods in a balanced manner. The real challenge is how to strike this critical balance?

Given the fact that there are multiple benefits of MPs including: a) improved access to primary healthcare, 2) enhanced livelihood security, 3) potentially sustainable use of the biodiversity, and 4) improved benefit sharing with local communities, the promotion of sustainable management of medicinal plants can help the biodiversity rich countries to meet the international obligations such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In the broader sense, medicinal plants can also contribute to address the chronic problem of global poverty and hunger. The realization of mega global targets such as those set by the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Poverty Reduction Strategy and Programs (PRSP) etc. will require interventions which are grass roots-based, poor-centred and livelihood focused. Put differently medicinal plants can meet the basic needs of the poor rural people. For example, pro-poor marketing and enterprise development activities in medicinal plants can help poor collectors and growers of medicinal plants to increase their household income, which is dwindling due to increased input costs and decreasing returns.

For example, China is estimated to have 12,807 species of plants out of which 11,146 are classified as medicinal plants used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). It is estimated that up to 492 species are currently under cultivation and the remaining 10,654 species are harvested from wild habitats (SEPA, 1997). According to Wang etc. (2002), the total production from wild sources is 8.5 million tons and the cultivated medicinal plants production was estimated to be 0.3 million tons in 2001-02. These produce not only contribute to the health of Chinese people but also add approximately 2 billion USD to the national economy annually. In the southwest mountainous province of Guizhou, the contribution of medicinal plants is reported to be about 10 percent of the province’s GDP in 2002 (equivalent to half billion US dollars) (Pei Shengzi, 2003).

Medicinal, aromatic and dye plants (MADPs) also have potential to present as commodities with competitive advantages for the poor regions of Asia, Africa & Latin America. It is observed that some of the poorest regions of the world such as the western and eastern regions of Himalayas, Borneo and Sumatra regions in Asia; Congo basin in Africa and Amazon catchments in South America are also rich in biological diversity where medicinal plants and other NTFP species grow in abundance. If we can promote a balanced conservation and cultivation of MADPs, rural poverty can be alleviated, gender imbalances can be addressed and local economy improved.

More broadly, many medicinal plants are found in forest ecosystems, where they are used to meet the health care needs and livelihoods pursuits of indigenous and local communities. Forests have been targeted in Central America and the Caribbean as priority eco-regions for conservation (IDRC, 2000). MPs are increasingly being recognized as an important resources for sustainable development, particularly as sources of safe, effective, and accessible health care that integrates traditional and community knowledge, innovations, and practices with modern scientific approaches to health research.

Traditional Medicine:

Types of traditional system of medicine (TSM) vary greatly from region to region based on many historical, economic and cultural factors. Asia is home to a number of codified systems—that is, systems of practice where the preparation of medicines and their specific applications have been documented in written form. These texts written thousands of years before have been passed down the generations through many millennia. On the Indian subcontinent, the oldest of the codified systems is Ayurveda – believed to be 5,000 years old. This region is also home to other codified systems of traditional medicine, somewhat more recent in origin, such as Unani, Siddha and Tibetan. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), also a codified system, estimated to cover 40 per cent of publicly funded health services in China, is believed to date back 4,000 to 5,000 years. The TCM is now globally accepted complimentary and alternate medicine (CAM).

Emerging Economic Benefits:

Increasing interest by multinational pharmaceutical companies and domestic manufacturers of herbal-based medicines is contributing significant economic growth of the global medicinal plants sector. In 1997, for example, 3,500 tons of the bark of the shrub Prunus Africana (valued at US $220 million) was exported from Africa, to be used in the treatment of prostate disease. The global market potential of aloe—used to treat burns and added to skin creams and cosmetics—is estimated in the billions of dollars. Devil’s Claw, is a major export from Namibia for use in the treatment of arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.

In the three Himalayan countries of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, several thousand tones of MAPs are extracted from forests providing earnings that run into millions of dollars each year (Karki, 2003, Belcher 2003). In India, which is the hub of the regional trade, at the national level up to 40% of the state forest-based revenues and 70% of forest export revenues, come from MAPs & non-timber forest products (NTFPs) mostly in unprocessed and raw forms. In Nepal it is estimated that every year 20,000 tons of MAPs worth 18-20 million US$ are traded and about 90% of this collection is exported mainly to India in raw form (Kanel, 2002).

In Bangladesh where herbal medicines have been used for centuries, the most important markets are the rural consumers. Each year, companies producing herbal medicines import huge amounts of raw plant ingredients into Bangladesh. The cultivation is becoming both profitable and environmentally friendly. The Government has encouraged the development of the industry since the Prime Minister launched `plantation fortnight’ last year with a call to plant medicinal plants & fruit trees. It is estimated that around 12,000 tones of dried medicinal plants are sold from the rural collection and production areas worth around 4.5 million USD to the rural economy. The wholesale value is estimated to be US$ 6 million and the import of around 5,000 tons worth US$ 8 million. In summary the MAP sector in Bangladesh is worth US$ 14 million with local supply comprising of 70% by volume and 40% by value (SEDF/IC, 2003).

Bhutan has a rich biodiversity and the government’s commitment to conservation has led to passage of number of important acts such as the 1995 Forest and Nature Conservation Act. The act, however, has made provisions for the issue of special permits for collecting plants for regulating the collection, cultivation, sale, import and, export of medicinal plants. The permit for the collection of medicinal plants, for the manufacture of traditional medicine is also issued annually. More recently, the Government has also lifted the ban on collection of the Yarsa Gumba or Cordicep sinensis, a high value medicinal plant, giving adequate access and benefit rights to the communities (Kunsel, Feb. 2004.). This was done after studies conducted by the Renewable Natural Resources Research Centre (RNRC) of the Royal Government of Bhutan (RGOB) had indicated that sustainable collection rather than illegal and haphazard collection would be the best way of conserving the resource and assist in the economic development of target communities. A committee was formed with Agriculture Marketing Services (AMS) as the lead agency to market cordyceps and a basic minimum price of Nu 37,500 (USD 830) was set per Kg. However due to competition between buyers the rates finally touched Nu 87,000/kg (USD 1,930) in 2004. Communities and the ministry of agriculture set certain laws and regulations for harvesting, selling, and monitoring the process and collectors in Northern Bhutan earned handsomely from an estimated sale of 300 – 400 kgs of cordyceps in 2004 (ICIMOD case studies 2005). The government is systematically developing traditional medicine sector as one of the major domestic consumer components of both the raw materials and processed drugs.

In Nepal, the benefit of small interventions promoting community-managed enterprises is evident from the case of Humla Oil Co. an essential oil processing enterprise established in Humla district in western Nepal. Under an USAID supported project. The project, implemented by a group of MAPPA partners led by the Asia Network for Sustainable Agriculture and Biodiversity (ANSAB), sustainable collection, processing, management, and marketing activities were systematically carried out by local communities and their institutions (ICIMOD, 1998). A detailed study by Enterprise Works Everywhere (EWE), Washington DC showed that program beneficiaries boosted their annual income from collecting and selling natural products by 175 % during the period 1995-1998 (ANSAB, 2003).