Guidelines On The Conservation Of Medicinal Plants

A detailed discussion of the need to conserve medicinal plants and their environments.

Medicinal plant materials are supplied through collection from wild populations and cultivation. Under the overall context of quality assurance and control of herbal medicines WHO developed the Guidelines on good agricultural and collection practices (GACP) for medicinal plants providing general technical guidance on obtaining medicinal plant materials of good quality for the sustainable production of herbal products classified as medicines. These guidelines are also related to WHO's work on the protection of medicinal plants aiming promotion of sustainable use and cultivation of medicinal plants. The main objectives of these guidelines are to: (1) contribute to the quality assurance of medicinal plant materials used as the source for herbal medicines to improve the quality safety and efficacy of finished herbal products; (2) guide the formulation of national and/or regional GACP guidelines and GACP monographs for medicinal plants and related standard operating procedures; and (3) encourage and support the sustainable cultivation and collection of medicinal plants of good quality in ways that respect and support the conservation of medicinal plants and the environment in general. These guidelines concern the cultivation and collection of medicinal plants and include certain post-harvest operations. Good agricultural and collection practices for medicinal plants are the first step in quality assurance on which the safety and efficacy of herbal medicinal products directly depend. These practices also play an important role in protection natural resources of medicinal plants for sustainable use.

Collects information on distribution, life history, biology, population status, levels of extraction and trade and resource management of medicinal plants; includes several citations to works on CITES plants and ethnobotany.

This volume is a collection of papers by experts in medicinal plants, presented to help clarify the many policy and technical issues associated with the conservation, use, production and trade of medicinal plants. The publication draws attention to the huge contribution of medicinal plants to traditional and modern health care system. It also alerts readers on the many problems and challenges facing their sustainable development. Subjects covered include assessment and management of the medicinal plant resource base; best harvesting and processing practices; trade issues; and intellectual property rights regarding traditional medicines of indigenous peoples. This documents will help raise awareness of medicinal plants as an important forest resource and will help ensure that medicinal plants are adequately included in forest conservation and utilization programmes. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction by G C Bodeker; Part I: General Articles covering Global Issues; Forest based medicines in traditional and cosmopolitan health care by A P Van Seters, Enthnobotanical research and traditional health care in developing countries by M Balick and P A Cox, Between a rock and a hard place: Indigenous peoples, nation states and the multinationals by G Dutfield, Industrial utilisation of medicinal plants in developing countries by T de Silva, Trade in Medicinal Plants by S E Kuipers, Medicinal plant information database by K K S Bhat; Part II: Articles on Regional Aspects of Medicinal Plants Use; Biodiversity-People Interface in Nepal by N Bhattarai, Beyond the Biodiversity convention-the challenges facing the bio-cultural heritage of india s medicinal plants by D Shankar and B Majumdar, A biocultural medicinal plants conservation project in Sri Lanka by L de Alwis, utilisation and conservation of medicinal plants in China with special reference to Atractylides lancea by S-A He and N Sheng, An Africa-wide overview of medicinial plant harvesting, conservation and health care by A B Cunningham, Biodiversity conservation and the application of Amazonian medicinal plants in the control of malaria by W Milliken, Bulgarian model for regulating the trade in plant material for medicinal and other purposes by D Lange and M Mladenova, Phytomedicinal forest harvest in the United States by J A Duke.

This volume brings together a collection of papers by some experts in medicinal plants. It is presented as a contribution to clarifying the many policy and technical issues associated with the conservation, use, production and trade of medicinal plants. This publication draws attention to the huge contribution of medicinal plants to traditional and modern health care systems, but also alert the readers on the many problems and challenges facing their sustainable development, such as: assessment and management of the medicinal plant resource base; best harvesting and processing practices; trade issues and aspects dealing with the intellectual property rights on traditional medicine by indigenous peoples. The use of this document will help raise the awareness on medicinal plants as an important forest resource, and will help ensure that medicinal plants are adequately included in forest conservation and utilization programmes.