MEDICINAL PLANT RESOURCES UNDER STRESS IN THE STATE

MEDICINAL PLANT RESOURCES

 UNDER STRESS IN THE STATE

Heavily exploited to fuel the booming global market for herbal drugs, more than 100 medicinal plant species in Kerala have been pushed to the verge of extinction. Unsustainable extraction from the wild and unscientific methods of cultivation are endangering more species.Scientists feel that the threat to medicinal plants would impact on the rich biodiversity of Kerala.“India, having two out of the 34 biodiversity hotspots of the world, is perhaps the largest producer of medicinal plants in the world. Of the 43,000 plant species recorded in India, 3,000 are known to possess medicinal properties,” says S. Rajasekharan, Head, Department of Ethnomedicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI) at Palode .The vast resource of medicinal plants has been widely used in various traditional systems of medicine like Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, and Amchi. There are more than 800 licensed units in Kerala manufacturing traditional medicines. It is estimated that 85 to 90 per cent of the medicinal plants used by these units are collected from the wild.“In Kerala more than 900 medicinal plants are used in both classical and oral health tradition including tribal medicines. Out of these 200 medicinal plants are largely extracted for the preparation of diverse medicinal and food products,” observes Dr. Rajasekharan.

He feels that it is time to introduce good conservation, collection, cultivation, harvesting, storage and marketing practices to deal with the situation.“Medicinal plants are renewable natural resources and therefore, their conservation and sustainable utilisation must necessarily involve a long-term, integrated, scientifically-oriented holistic action programme.” The JNTBGRI has proposed a pilot project for conservation and sustainable use of medicinal and aromatic plants. To be implemented in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts under the World Bank-aided Kerala Forestry Programme, it seeks to conserve 10 selected species of medicinal plants that are location-specific, rare, endangered and possess high therapeutic values. Some of the conservation sites recommended are ‘Harichandana' (Maramanhal) site for conservation of Cocinum fenistratum and ‘Mritasanjeevani' site for conservation of Pittosporum nilghirensis (Analivegam) at Upper Pampinkuzhi area of Kanayar range of Achencoil Division, ‘Varahi' site for conservation of Trichopus zeylanicus , popularly known as Arogyapacha at Kottaramvacha para and Attayar of Peppara wild sanctuary and Meenmutty, Mungavila near Kallar of Neyyar wildlife sanctuary of Thiruvananthapuram division. Agasthayarkoodam in the Peppara/Neyyar wildlife sanctuary of Thiruvananthapuram Division has been identified as Agasthya site for conservation of Heracleum candolleanum (Vathamparathi).

Dr. Rajasekharan feels that inventorisation, documentation and evaluation of medicinal plants should be given top priority. “It is necessary to document local indigenous knowledge on the use of plants for healthcare. Selected high-value medicinal plants should be chemically prospected for identification and isolation of potential biodynamic molecules of pharmaceutical interest. Efforts are to be made for the domestication and genetic upgradation of the medicinal plant wealth.” According to him, the large-scale cultivation of rubber in the plains and harvesting from the forest and forest fringe areas are the major threats to medicinal plants in Kerala.The indiscriminate destruction of plants in public places by workers engaged under the employment guarantee scheme is a major cause for concern, he says.

Prof. John Kurakar