Millions of lives could be at risk because the plants which provide the basis of more than half of all prescription drugs face extinction, a new report warns.
The loss of plants and trees which provide natural medicines could provoke a global healthcare crisis, says Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI).
Potential cures for some of the world’s deadliest diseases – including currently untreatable cancer – may be lost if the problem is not checked.
In its report London-based BGCI, which links botanic gardens in 120 countries, calls for urgent action to help secure the future of health care across the world.
It says 70 per cent of all newly-developed drugs in the United States, the world’s largest and wealthiest pharmaceuticals market, are derived from natural sources and despite major scientific advances, human health is still overwhelmingly dependent on the plant kingdom.
Sara Oldfield, Secretary General of BGCI, said: “We are using up a wide range of the world’s natural medicines and squandering the potential to develop new remedies. And yet it is perfectly possible to prevent plant extinctions”.
Scientists had predicted that biochemistry would allow most drugs to be produced synthetically in the laboratory but in many cases it has proved impossible to reproduce the beneficial compounds found in plants.
The report cites as an example the world’s most widely-used cancer drug, Paclitaxel, which is derived from the bark of several species of yew tree. Its complex chemical structure and biological function has so far made it impossible to produce artificially.
Until recently it took an average of 6 trees to produce a single dose resulting in the decimation of wild yew populations across the world. In China’s Yunnan Province, once famous for its yew forests, 80 per cent were destroyed within a three year period.
“The dramatic decline in a range of yew species, highlights the global extinction crisis that is facing medicinal plant species.” said Sara Oldfield.
Poorer countries will be particularly hard-hit if trees and plants continue to be destroyed at the current rate. The World Health Organisation estimates that 5.3 billion people – 80 per cent of the global population – rely on traditional plant-based medicine as their primary form of healthcare, and in many cases collection and sales of these plants provide their only form of livelihood.
But the report says it is in the poorer rural areas where trees and plants are most threatened.
The report’s author Belinda Hawkins said: “The loss of the world’s medicinal plants may not always be at the forefront of the public consciousness, however it is not an overstatement to say that if the precipitous decline of these species is not halted, it could destabilise the future of global healthcare, putting many millions of lives at risk.”
The BGCI has drawn on the work of some of the world’s leading botanists, conservationists, healthcare professionals and traditional healers to identify which medicinal plant species are most at risk and what steps are needed to save them.
“Our report calls for co-ordinated global conservation efforts to save medicinal plants working with local communities and drawing on the skills and expertise of botanic gardens that have been involved in medicinal plant study since their first establishment 500 years ago.” said Sara Oldfield.