Key species of medicinal plants in India are under threat because of over-collection for supply to domestic and foreign markets, the latest report on medicinal plants by conservation groups, IUCN and TRAFFIC, suggests.
The research focusing on seven species of medicinal plants found in Asia shows that India is emerging a major destination for five plant species, including Elephants Foot (Dioscorea deltoidea), Jatamansi (Nardostachys grandiflora), Kutki (Picrorhiza kurrooa), Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus) and Snakeroot (Rauvolfia serpentina).
The research focusing on seven species of medicinal plants found in Asia shows that India is emerging a major destination for five plant species, including Elephants Foot (Dioscorea deltoidea), Jatamansi (Nardostachys grandiflora), Kutki (Picrorhiza kurrooa), Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus) and Snakeroot (Rauvolfia serpentina).Many of the medicinal plants in trade in India are collected in the high Himalayan regions of neighbouring Nepal, where collection of species such as Jatamansi and Kutki runs to hundreds of tonnes of rhizomes, harvested by thousands of collectors who supplied them to middlemen and to large-scale wholesalers in Nepal and India, suggests the finding.
Raw material are often transported to wholesale markets in Delhi, Amritsar and Kolkata for onward sale, says the report.
With regard to trade in Himalayan medicinal plants, most though not all, roads lead to India, which is both a major manufacturing centre and end consumer market, says TRAFFIC’s Teresa Mulliken, an author of the report.
Besides, the use of wild-plant species form the basis of traditional medicinal systems practices in Asia, particularly traditional Chinese, Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Tibetan medicines.