Plants for life: - Sacred Seeds Sanctuary

3. Medicinal plants for healingMedicinal plants have been used bymankind for millennia; their use is as oldas humanity itself. The range of speciesused and their scope for healing is vast.Cures as yet undiscovered may exist inplants as yet undescribed. Currently, it isestimated that the number of higher plantspecies used worldwide for medicinalpurposes is more than 50,000(Schippmann et al., 2002). This equates toapproximately 20% of the world’s vascularflora and constitutes the biggest spectrumof biodiversity used by people for aspecific purpose (Hamilton et al., 2006).Traditional medicine“Traditional medicine is the sum totalof the knowledge, skills and practicesbased on the theories, beliefs andexperiences indigenous to differentcultures, whether explicable or not, usedin the maintenance of health as well asin the prevention, diagnosis,improvement or treatment of physicaland mental illness”(World Health Organisation (WHO), 2003).In 1960, at the cave site of Shanidarin what is now north-eastern Iraq,the skeleton of an adult male wasdiscovered, lying on his left side ina partial foetal position. He’d beenburied some 60,000 years ago.Routine soil samples were gatheredfor pollen analysis in an attempt toreconstruct the site’s palaeoclimateand vegetational history. In some ofthe samples concentrated clumps ofpollen were found suggesting thatentire flowering plants had beenburied close to the man. Though thesource of the pollen is hotly debated,a study of the particular flower typessuggested that the flowers may havebeen specifically chosen for theirmedicinal properties. Yarrow (Achilleaspp.), St. Barnaby’s thistle (Centaureaspp.), groundsel (Senecio spp.) androse mallow (Hibiscus spp.) amongstothers were represented in the pollensamples, all of which have longknowncurative powers as stimulants,astringents and anti-inflammatories.• In China, Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) is largely plant-based (80%) andTCM preparations account for 30-50%of total medicinal consumption, risingto 90% in rural areas (WHO, 2003).• In India, Ayurvedic medicine, a systemmore than 5,000 years old, is based onsome 2,000 plant species (Zedan,2002).• In Sub-Saharan Africa, the ratio oftraditional healers to the populationis approximately 1:500, while medicaldoctors have a 1:40,000 ratio to therest of the population (Richter, 2004).In fact, of the total pharmaceutical drugsupply available worldwide, only 15%is consumed in developing countries(Lydecker et al., 1992), supporting the