Plants for life: - Sacred Seeds Sanctuary

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Harvesting Prunus africana.allow medicinal plant products to beengineered to a consistent and highstandard, infinitely more appropriate forstandardised pharmaceutical use.The cultivation, management andenrichment planting of high value plantsis therefore an important strategy to meetconsumer demands and reduce theimpacts of markets on biodiversity.However, cultivation often requires majorinputs for a far-off return in a fluctuatingmarket characterised by ‘fads’. Thoughseveral medicinal plants are cultivated ona large scale (Arnica montana, Hamamelisvirginiana, Panax quinquefolius andCatharanthus roseus to name a few) it isnot economically feasible to commerciallycultivate all of the medicinal plants thatare threatened in the wild. (It should benoted that, despite cultivation, several ofthese species were also considered aspriorities for further conservation attentionin the wild, see Annex 5). There is littleincentive to bring into cultivation speciesthat are required in relatively smallvolumes, are slow growing, are believedto be more potent in their wild form or donot command sufficiently high prices.Moreover, there are social, economic andecological benefits to wild harvest. Asmentioned, since wild collection is mostlycarried out in low-wage countries and bylow-income, underprivileged groups it’s achance for the poorest of people to get atleast some income, despite having no land.Wild harvest also gives an economic valueto ecosystems and habitats and thusprovides an incentive for the protection ofsomething much larger than just themedicinal plant. Though theconsequences of collecting activity are stillvery little understood, the involvement oflocal people in sustainable managementpractices increases both their desire andability to protect wild populations fromover-exploitation. Of course, theassumption here is that stocks aresufficient, demand will remain constantand the structures and dynamics withinlocal communities will remain stable.Rauvolfia serpentinaRauvolfia serpentina (Indiansnakeroot, Sarpaghanda) is member ofthe dogbane family, found in India,Pakistan and south east Asia.“The primary folk use for the extractwas as a means of attaining states ofintrospection and meditation, andIndian holy men, including MahatmaGhandi, were habitual users of thedrug”(Mann, 1992).But the plant is also an importanthealer, used for stomach disorders,snakebite and epilepsy. R. serpentinais also the source of the alkaloidresperine, which revolutionized thetreatment of hypertension in the 1950sand is still commonly prescribed today.Chemically similar to serotonin,resperine was also used to treat severemental illnesses due to its powerfulsedative properties.Once found in most of tropical India,by 1998 it was confined to a range ofless that 5,000km 2 ; with an area of wildpopulation occupancy said to be lessthan 500km 2 (Mamgain et al. 1998).Export was banned by the IndianMinistry of Commerce in 1994, and inNepal in 2001 (Aryal, no date) andtrade is now less than it was in pastIt should be noted that both large-scalecultivation and unsustainable wild harvestlead to genetic erosion. When cultivated,artificial changes (to intensify theconcentration of certain compounds)often occur very quickly, unlike in nature.In the short term the desired results areachieved but, in terms of geneticdiversity, there may be long term negativeconsequences. It is a diverse gene poolthat contributes to the ability of speciesor populations to maintain resistance todiseases and to adapt to a changingclimate. Environmental conditions atevery level are constantly changing, andonly diversity can ensure that someindividuals will be able to adapt to thesechanges.CITES and medicinal plantsThe Convention on International Trade inEndangered Species of Wild Fauna andFlora (CITES) provides varying degrees ofprotection to more than 33,000 plantspecies. Of these, about 240 aredecades (CITES, 2005).However the rapiddecline and isolatednature of snakerootpopulations means thatwild genetic stock isseverely depleted.On a small scale India has successfullycultivated snakeroot for many decades,for example in hospital gardens, andcontinues to invest in this area. It isnot clear how successful this has beenhowever, given that the speciesrequires at least two years beforebearing marketable product. Furtherexperiments have shown that netreturns are higher when Rauvolfia isinter-cropped than when grown alone,in this way yielding a year roundharvest and down-playing the slowearly growth of the species(Maheshwari, 1985).Rauvolfia serpentina is recorded incultivation in 22 botanic gardens(PlantSearch database). However, littleis known about the genetic diversity ofsuch cultivated stock and accessionsin genebanks. A genetic study of theplants in botanic garden collections willbe encouraged by BGCI with a view todeveloping a strategy for therestoration of wild populations.medicinal (Schippmann, 2001) eventhough only approximately 30 have beenlisted specifically because of concernover their trade as medicine. Theintention of CITES is to promote asustainable trade in listed species.Plants for life: Medicinal plant conservation and botanic gardens 13
Hoodia spp.Hoodia spp. are slowgrowing,perennial,spiny succulent plants.They occur in a widerange of arid habitatsin southern Africa,typically on arid gravelplains. Detailedinformation on thedistribution andpopulation status ofindividual taxa islimited but ten of the16 taxa assessedhave been classified as threatenedaccording to IUCN Red List categories,with four taxa classified as Vulnerablein 2002.Traditionally used by the San bushmenof South Africa, strong, globalcommercial interest in the genus hasresulted from the isolation andpatenting of an active ingredient (P57)which acts as an appetite suppressantand is claimed to help weight loss;“Amazing, most effective safe weightloss with no side effects advancedappetite suppressant available!”“HoodiThin - Feel full faster andstay full longer!” “Hoodia diet pillsare guaranteed to work for you or itcosts absolutely nothing!”The active ingredient has been isolatedfrom H. gordonii which only occurs inNamibia and South Africa. This speciesis considered to be abundant andwidespread. However, some of theother taxa in the genus exist infragmented populations (some with asfew as 250 individuals) and cannoteasily be distinguished from H. gordonii.These species are therefore under threatfrom over-collection for trade. AllHoodia species were listed on CITESAppendix II in 2005, but illegal trade isknown to occur.SpeciesNo. of botanicgarden collectionsHoodia bainii 2Hoodia barklyii 2Hoodia currori 1Hoodia dregei 5Hoodia gibbosa 1Hoodia gordonii 10Hoodia juttae 3Hoodia langii 1Hoodia macrantha 7Hoodia parviflora 1Hoodia pilfera 4Hoodia pillansii 1Hoodia ruschii 3There is significant commercial attentionon this genera, given the lucrative natureof its promise. The species should onlybe grown or collected with a permit andplantations have been in developmentfor several years. Demand however,remains a threat to certain populations.As a suggested species for priorityconservation action, Hoodia will beincluded in BGCI’s wider medicinal plantconservation programme.CITES regulates international tradebetween signatory countries. It is notapplicable to domestic or non-signatorytraffic. Monitoring of the trade under theterms and conditions of the Convention iscomplex and only partially successful.It is thought that a huge amount of tradein medicinal plants goes unrecorded andunregulated, for example that withinChina or between Nepal and India.Even trade movements covered by CITESare poorly understood, hampered byidentification problems, under-resourcedenforcement and inconsistent nationalinterpretations of the international statute.Most medicinal plant species are nottraded under their scientific name, andcome in a variety of parts and derivatives.Aquilaria malaccensis, for example, has atleast 50 trade names (Lange andSchippmann, 1999); an import ofwoodchips can be listed as ‘bark’ withno species name.“It is indisputable that monitoring thetrade in wild collected plants is onlyuseful if carried out at species level andthat without such, analysis of the tradeand its impact on populations cannot becarried out effectively”(Schippman, 1994).However, CITES is an importantmechanism for trade regulation and tohighlight critical issues. Botanic gardenscan be involved in the success of CITESin a number of ways.For more information on CITES andbotanic gardens go to www.bgci.org/citesor see A CITES manual for botanicgardens (Oldfield and McGough, 2007).The IUCN Red List of ThreatenedSpeciesIt is essentially a framework forclassifying species according to theirextinction risk. So far, almost 40,000species have been assessed, of whichsome 12,000 are plants. It is difficult tospecify what proportion of threatenedmedicinal plant species have beenevaluated using the IUCN Red Listcategories and criteria but it is generallyrecognised to be a low proportion.For more information on the IUCN SSCand the IUCN SSC Medicinal PlantsSpecialist Group (MPSG) go towww.iucn.org/themes/ssc/ andwww.iucn.org/themes/ssc/sgs/mpsg/.Seized cycads, said to have variousmedicinal qualities and one of the mostendangered living things on the planet.Policy frameworks and legislation areinformed by essential data such as theendangerment assessments made by theSpecies Survival Commission (SSC) ofthe IUCN, which produces a Red List ofThreatened Species. Using a network ofthousands of scientists the Red Listprovides taxonomic, conservation statusand distribution information on globallyevaluated species according to specificcategories and criteria (Annex 6).14Plants for life: Medicinal plant conservation and botanic gardens
Page 4: ContentsMagnolia denudata.Flower bu
Page 7 and 8: 3. Medicinal plants for healingMedi
Page 9 and 10: 4. Medicinal plants for livelihoods
Page 11 and 12: 5. Approaches to medicinal plantcon
Page 13: • In October 1991, the Costa Rica
Page 17 and 18: Questionnaire responses illustrated
Page 19 and 20: Working with local authorities, Oax
Page 21 and 22: 7. Recommendations for medicinal pl
Page 23: 4. ConserveThe role of plant and se
Page 29: Lydecker, M., Silverman, M. & Lee,
Page 32 and 33: Annex 2 - Source data for list of m
Page 34 and 35: Annex 3 - Medicinal plants question
Page 36 and 37: Within the 35 priority list 5 gener
Page 38 and 39: Other medicinal plant species sugge
Page 46 and 47: Annex 6: The 2007 IUCN Red List of
Page 48 and 49: SOUTH ASIA• India, Sri LankaIt is
Page 50: This publication is supported by th

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