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AROMATIC AND MEDICINAL PLANTS RESEARCH STATION, ODAKKALI
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KERALA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
AROMATIC AND MEDICINAL PLANTS RESEARCH STATION, ODAKKALI
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Medicinal Plants Herbs are staging a comeback and herbal ‘renaissance’ is happening all over the globe. The herbal products today symbolise safety in contrast to the synthetics that are regarded as unsafe to human and environment. Although herbs had been priced for their medicinal, flavouring and aromatic qualities for centuries, the synthetic products of the modern age surpassed their importance, for a while. However, the blind dependence on synthetics is over and people are returning to the naturals with hope of safety and security. Over three-quarters of the world population relies mainly on plants and plant extracts for health care. More than 30% of the entire plant species, at one time or other, were used for medicinal purposes. It is estimated that world market for plant derived drugs may account for about Rs.2,00,000 crores. Presently, Indian contribution is less than Rs.2000 crores. Indian export of raw drugs has steadily grown at 26% to Rs.165 crores in 1994-’95 from Rs.130 crores in 1991-’92. The annual production of medicinal and aromatic plant’s raw material is worth about Rs.200 crores. This is likely to touch US $1150 by the year 2000 and US $5 trillion by 2050. It has been estimated that in developed countries such as United States, plant drugs constitute as much as 25% of the total drugs, while in fast developing countries such as China and India, the contribution is as much as 80%. Thus, the economic importance of medicinal plants is much more to countries such as India than to rest of the world. These countries provide two third of the plants used in modern system of medicine and the health care system of rural population depend on indigenous systems of medicine. Of the 2,50,000 higher plant species on earth, more than 80,000 are medicinal. India is one of the world’s 12 biodiversity centres with the presence of over 45000 different plant species. India’s diversity is unmatched due to the presence of 16 different agro-climatic zones, 10 vegetation zones, 25 biotic provinces and 426 biomes (habitats of specific species). Of these, about 15000-20000 plants have good medicinal value. However, only 7000-7500 species are used for their medicinal values by traditional communities. In India, drugs of herbal origin have been used in traditional systems of medicines such as Unani and Ayurveda since ancient times. The Ayurveda system of medicine uses about 700 species, Unani 700, Siddha 600, Amchi 600 and modern medicine around 30 species. The drugs are derived either from the whole plant or from different organs, like leaves, stem, bark, root, flower, seed, etc. Some drugs are prepared from excretory plant product such as gum, resins and latex. Even the Allopathic system of medicine has adopted a number of plant-derived drugs (Table: medicinal plants used in modern medicine) which form an important segment of the modern pharmacopoeia. Some important chemical intermediates needed for manufacturing the modern drugs are also obtained from plants (Eg. diosgenin, solasodine, b-ionone). Not only, that plant-derived drug offers a stable market world wide, but also plants continue to be an important source for new drugs. Traditional systems of medicine continue to be widely practised on many accounts. Population rise, inadequate supply of drugs, prohibitive cost of treatments, side effects of several allopathic drugs and development of resistance to currently used drugs for infectious diseases have led to increased emphasis on the use of plant materials as a source of medicines for a wide variety of human ailments. Global estimates indicate that 80% of about 4 billion population can not afford the products of the Western Pharmaceutical Industry and have to rely upon the use of traditional medicines which are mainly derived from plant material. This fact is well documented in the inventory of medicinal plants, listing over 20,000 species. In spite of the overwhelming influences and our dependence on modern medicine and tremendous advances in synthetic drugs, a large segment of the world population still like drugs from plants. In many of the developing countries the use of plant drugs is increasing because modern life saving drugs are beyond the reach of three quarters of the third world’s population although many such countries spend 40-50% of their total wealth on drugs and health care. As a part of the strategy to reduce the financial burden on developing countries, it is obvious that an increased use of plant drugs will be followed in the future. Among ancient civilisations, India has been known to be rich repository of medicinal plants. The forest in India is the principal repository of large number of medicinal and aromatic plants, which are largely collected as raw materials for manufacture of drugs and perfumery products. About 8,000 herbal remedies have been codified in Ayurveda. The Rigveda (5000 BC) has recorded 67 medicinal plants, Yajurveda 81 species, Atharvaveda (4500-2500 BC) 290 species, Charak Samhita (700 BC) and Sushrut Samhita (200 BC) had described properties and uses of 1100 and 1270 species respectively, in compounding of drugs and these are still used in the classical formulations, in the Ayurvedic system of medicine. Unfortunately, much of the ancient knowledge and many valuable plants are being lost at an alarming rate. With the rapid depletion of forests, impairing the availability of raw drugs, Ayurveda, like other systems of herbal medicines has reached a very critical phase. About 50% of the tropical forests, the treasure house of plant and animal diversity have already been destroyed. In India, forest cover is disappearing at an annual rate 1.5mha/yr. What is left at present is only 8% as against a mandatory 33% of the geographical area. Many valuable medicinal plants are under the verge of extinction. The Red Data Book of India has 427 entries of endangered species of which 28 are considered extinct, 124 endangered, 81 vulnerable, 100 rare and 34 insufficiently known species (Thomas, 1997). Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Folk (tribal) medicines are the major systems of indigenous medicines. Among these systems, Ayurveda is most developed and widely practised in India. Ayurveda dating back to 1500-800 BC has been an integral part of Indian culture. The term comes from the Sanskrit root Au (life) and Veda (knowledge). As the name implies it is not only the science of treatment of the ill but covers the whole gamut of happy human life involving the physical, metaphysical and the spiritual aspects. Ayurveda recognises that besides a balance of body elements one has to have an enlightened state of consciousness, sense organs and mind if one has to be perfectly healthy. Ayurveda by and large is an experience with nature and unlike in Western medicine, many of the concepts elude scientific explanation. Ayurveda is gaining prominence as the natural system of health care all over the world. Today this system of medicine is being practised in countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan, while the traditional system of medicine in the other countries like Tibet, Mongolia and Thailand appear to be derived from Ayurveda. Phytomedicines are also being used increasingly in Western Europe. Recently the US Government has established the “Office of Alternative Medicine” at the National Institute of Health at Bethesda and its support to alternative medicine includes basic and applied research in traditional systems of medicines such as Chinese, Ayurvedic, etc. with a view to assess the possible integration of effective treatments with modern medicines. The development of systematic pharmacopoeias dates back to 3000 BC, when the Chinese were already using over 350 herbal remedies. Ayurveda, a system of herbal medicine in India, Sri Lanka and South-East Asia has more than 8000 plant remedies and using around 35,000-70,000 plant species. China has demonstrated the best use of traditional medicine in providing the health care. China has pharmacologically validated and improved many traditional herbal medicines and eventually integrated them in formal health care system. Green plants synthesise and preserve a variety of biochemical products, many of which are extractable and used as chemical feed stocks or as raw material for various scientific investigations. Many secondary metabolites of plant are commercially important and find use in a number of pharmaceutical compounds. However, a sustained supply of the source material often becomes difficult due to the factors like environmental changes, cultural practices, diverse geographical distribution, labour cost, selection of the superior plant stock and over exploitation by pharmaceutical industry. Plants, especially used in Ayurveda can provide biologically active molecules and lead structures for the development of modified derivatives with enhanced activity and /or reduced toxicity. The small fraction of flowering plants that have so far been investigated have yielded about 120 therapeutic agents of known structure from about 90 species of plants. Some of the useful plant drugs include vinblastine, vincristine, taxol, podophyllotoxin, camptothecin, digitoxigenin, gitoxigenin, digoxigenin, tubocurarine, morphine, codeine, aspirin, atropine, pilocarpine, capscicine, allicin, curcumin, artemesinin and ephedrine among others. In some cases, the crude extract of medicinal plants may be used as medicaments. On the other hand, the isolation and identification of the active principles and elucidation of the mechanism of action of a drug is of paramount importance. Hence, works in both mixture of traditional medicine and single active compounds are very important. Where the active molecule cannot be synthesised economically, the product must be obtained from the cultivation of plant material. About 121 (45 tropical and 76 subtropical) major plant drugs have been identified for which no synthetic one is currently available (table 1). The scientific study of traditional medicines, derivation of drugs through bioprospecting and systematic conservation of the concerned medicinal plants are thus of great importance. Tropical countries are a treasure house of a wide variety of medicinal plants. Some species are found wild, while a number of species have been domesticated by the farmers. Many species have been grown in homesteads and become part of traditional home remedies. A limited number of species are commercially cultivated though a few more have potential for large-scale production. The important tropical and subtropical medicinal plants are discussed here highlighting the importance, medicinal and other uses, distribution, botany, agrotechnology, chemical constituents and activity. For practical convenience of the discussion in this book, they are classified under the following four broad groups.
For more details on the above plants see the following reference. Joy, P.P., Thomas, J., Mathew, S., and Skaria, B.P. 2001. Medicinal Plants. In Tropical Horticulture Vol. 2. (eds. Bose, T.K., Kabir, J., Das, P. and Joy, P.P.). Naya Prokash, Calcutta, pp. 449-632. |
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