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| Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
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The medicinal treasures of our forests by Derrick Schokman A recent newspaper report stated that President Chandrika Kumaratunga had urged the Provincial Councils to establish medicinal herb gardens and Ayurvedic laboratories to produce quality medicine and save Rs. 500 million annually on imports. This represents a twelve-times value increase in imports over the past decade, subsequent on a growing awareness of the benefits of Ayurveda and subsequent commercialisation. The Ayurvedic system plays an important supplementary role in the medicinal sector. More than 50 per cent of the population use medicinal plants together with modern medicines. About 30 per cent use only Ayurvedic medicines. Ayurvedic practitioners and hospitals are found throughout the country. Nearly every village has a 'Veda Mahatmaya.' Of the 3,500 or so plant species found in this country, more than 1,000 are used in Ayurveda. About 500 are identified in the ancient 'Samhitas' and 'Niganduwas' originally from India. Many new indigenous species have since been added to the system. Some of the most extensively used medicinal herbs are sudu handun, arulu, bulu, mee, maliththa, olinda-wel, ela-batu, ela-nedun, wadha kaha, ela-nittuli, rassakinda, kohomba, komarica, kapu knishsa, weniwel and diya rathambala. Some of these are imported now because of inadequate supplies to meet present demands. And several important plants such as bimkohomba, asoka, rodanti, beli, rath handun, sudu handun and polpala are endangered. Overextraction The main reason for these inadquacies in domestic supply is that wild plants found in the remaining natural forests are being over-extracted. More than 50 per cent of the medicinal plants found in our natural forests are used in Ayurveda. The users of medicinal herbs take them from the forests and do not give anything back to the environment. They collect and sell to beth-kades,' 'veda mahatmayas' and exporters. If this grab system is allowed to continue, the natural herb supply will soon outstrip levels of sustainability, leading on in time to the complete extinction of several important varieties. Whatever organised propagation and cultivation has taken place in the Botanic Gardens section of the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Ayurveda, the Bandaranaike Memorial Ayurvedic Research Institute and in some school gardens has been on a very limited scale, quite inadequate to compensate for overextraction of wild plants. In these circumstances, it is essential that every effort be made by the Government to conserve our natural forest resources on the one hand, and to establish adequate herbal gardens on the other as urged by the President. Forest Department The protection of the natural resource base is within the purview of the Forest Department. This department is well aware of this responsibility and has made the following recommendations in its Master Plan. First and foremost it is necessary to inventorise the important medicinal plants found in the natural forests, together with studies of the rate of extraction, so that sustainability can be properly assessed. Next, it is necessary to conserve the important plants, especially the endangered species, by preserving their habitats. The conduct of research especially in regard to the ecological requirements and propagation of the important species would be another requirement. And finally the development of strategies for ex-situ cultivation in multiple-use forests, herbal nurseries and home gardens. Issues outside the Forest Department, like pharmacological evaluation, clinical trials, and the training of health workers will have to be tackled by other aspects of the infrastructure e.g. Department of Ayurveda, the Bandaranaike Memorial Research Institute and the Ayurvedic Drugs Corporation. It would be necessary to develop processing techniques and new products that bring added value to medicinal plants. The present infrastructure could be reinforced by the establishment of more field laboratories. Project A project for the 'Conservation and Sustainability of Medicinal Plants' was mooted some time ago, with the support of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), to demarcate medicinal plant reserves in biogeographical representative areas. In these areas, a wide range of activities were proposed including conservation, propagation, basic processing and the extension of these activities to other areas as out-reach programmes. The project was intended to mobilise Grama Niladhari Divisions and the communities living in the demarcated areas to participate in the exploration, packaging of medicinal plant products and the production of ayurvedic medicines as a new vocation in addition to traditional agricultural practices. There has been some concern however that such a shift in vocation, while being advantageous in the short-term might lead to the long-term extinction of stocks in the wild. People remember what happened subsequent to the popularised identification and establishment of nurseries in the 1970s and 1980s, which led to a sudden rise in the pirating and export of rare medicinal plants. We must hope that steps will be taken to see that nothing like that ever happens again. The export of endangered plants, some of which are protected under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, has emerged as a major problem. Export control needs to be strengthened and the red list of endangered medicinal plants brought up to date-before more rare species are spirited away. |
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