photo: Jeevan Jose via flickr/Creative Commons
DCL
This one's pretty crazy when you think about it: The Economic Times reports that the Botanical Survey of India has done an assessment of the state of the nation's wild medicinal plants used in Ayurvedic medicine. As you can tell by the headline, the prognosis for those species which are harvested from the wild--about 95% of herbs used are not cultivated--is decidedly not good.
Of the 359 prioritized wild medicinal plant species, some 335 have been assigned a Red List status of critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, threatened or near threatened.
Now that's a pretty wide range--there's a big difference between a species considered critically endangered and near threatened for sure--but the bigger picture is that a whole heck of a lot of the plants which form the pharmacopeia of one of the world's oldest medicinal systems are at risk.
The reason for all those plants being threatened? Over-harvesting to meet consumer demand.
5 Plants Being Used to Death
The original piece highlights five critically endangered species:
- Ulteria salicfolia, extracts from the rhizome of which can protect against ulcers
- Hydnocarpus pentandra, or the Jangli Almond, whose seed oil is used to treat ailments diverse as leprosy, arthritis, and diabetes
- Gymnocladus assamicus, a tree found in northeast India
- Begonia tessaricarpa, known as Rebe, which was thought to be extinct for 115 years before being rediscovered, and is used to treat stomach aches and dehydration
Ayurveda Itself Might Not Be Threatened, But Pretty Close
Step back for a second and let this one sink in.
Ayurveda, a medicinal system that goes back in history thousands of years and which (perhaps contrary to the popular perception in the US) included dental, brain, and plastic surgery as part of its treatments alongside herbal medicines and less invasive treatments since the very beginning, has nine out of ten of its medicines endangered.
Now, that doesn't mean that analogs for the treatment affect of these plants couldn't perhaps be found elsewhere on the planet, so it would be premature to say that the system is at risk. But this is certainly a wakeup call.
Consider it another way: Imagine yourself walking into your local drugstore one day and discovering that it for nine out of ten medicines you need there's been a run on, well, everything, the only stock left is what's on the shelves and there isn't anymore coming in.
Time to take loss of biodiversity seriously? You bet.
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