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Endangered Medical Plants

Internationally there are thousands of species of endangered plants, a combination of pollution and loss of habitat have put these plants at risk of extinction. Many of the endangered plants have medicinal uses. Plants with medicinal uses face an added danger, though. Between the pharmaceutical industry and individuals seeking alternative medical treatments many of these plants are being over harvested, putting them at increased risk of extinction.

Demand
- According to the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) the number of people using herbal medicines in the United States had reached 37 percent by the year 2000, which comes to well over 100 million people. The rate is much higher in many parts of the developing world in places where modern medicine is not available. The WWF estimates that 80 percent of the world's population relies on traditional, herbal medications. Additionally pharmaceutical companies use many plants as the base material for making drugs. All of this combines to create a multi billion dollar industry in herbs, $3 billion in the U.S. alone, with very little regulation.
United States
- The number of endangered or at risk medicinal plants in the United States is small relative to many countries. This is, in part, due to public awareness of endangered species and private efforts to preserve the plants. Groups such as United Plant Savers, a Vermont based non-profit, help to raise awareness of endangered plants and herbs and distribute seeds to gardeners and landscaping companies. U.S. demand for medicinal herbs imported from abroad is still a problem for endangered plants abroad though.
Internationally
- In much of the world the situation is becoming very serious. In India an estimated 93 percent of the plants used for traditional, ayurvedic medicines are now considered endangered. In much of the developing world it is difficult if not impossible to even catalogue all of the plants and their populations. In the rain forests of South America plant species are becoming extinct before they can even be studied and catalogued by science. In the U.S. 37 percent of all medicines contain ingredients found only in the rain forest.
Conservation Efforts
- Currently relatively few laws or international treaties exist to protect medicinal plants. Existing endangered species legislation protects a few but these laws do not take into account the demand for plants with medical properties. In cooperation with CETIS (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) the Botanical Garden Conservation Initiative is attempting to list, catalogue and collect samples of the worlds endangered medicinal plants. Researchers hope that this work will help to preserve the plants in the wild as well as in the botanical garden setting.

Nature