A Balanced Perspective for Management of Indian Medicinal Plants

Indigenous Systems of Medicine like Ayurveda , Siddha , Unani and Swarigpa have their separate codes of medicine and their practitioners use medicinal plants in their own way. Besides , there are traditional women , elders who also possess knowledge of medicinal plants and use them as remedies and health aids in areas from high Himalayas in the North to Kanyakumari in the South. Regional studies and checklists are available but these have not been , in all cases , correlated to modern systems based on chemistry and pharmacology. It has been estimated that about 1 ,800 species are fully documented for biological properties , which are mainly obtained from tropical and various types of forests. Of the 386 families and 2 ,200 genera , 10 families provide the larger share and the highest number of species falls under Asteraceae.About one-third of these are trees , shrubs , and herbs , respectively. Threat assessment has indicated that about 200 species are rare , endangered or threatened. Conservation and cultivation strategies have been suggested and a holistic approach recommended because cultivation alone cannot prevent extinction. In-situ conservation of wild population , establishment of taluka-Ievel herbal gardens , thousands of home gardens and large scale cultivation of selected cultivators are the four important measures , which are likely to effect conservation and reduce threat , at present facing them due to over-exploitation as well as their destructive utilization , as ischolar_mains barks , whole plants etc. in these systems.