Focus on Medicinal Plants: International Development Research Centre

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IDRC Program Initiative: Sustainable Use of Biodiversity (SUB)

2004-02-13

Traditional medicine is used the world over — but is particularly relied on in developing countries. In the South, some 80% of people endeavour to protect or restore health using methods that have been handed down from generation to generation.

Medicinal plants — the world’s oldest known health care products — play a key role in traditional medicine. But these plants are not only used for primary health care: many widely used pharmaceuticals are derived from plants and other natural sources.

How can medicinal plants contribute to sustainable livelihoods? Ensure access to affordable and effective medicines? What are the limitations and problems associated with the commercial use of medicinal plants? The articles in this collection touch on some of these issues.

Features

In October 2003, scientists, researchers, pharmacists, traditional healers, policymakers, and representatives of the academic and business worlds met in Ottawa, Canada, to take part in an International Symposium on Biodiversity and Health. It was the first time such a disparate group from both North and South came together to examine issues surrounding the use and conservation of medicinal plants and the practice of traditional medicine. What follows is a summary of the presentations and discussions at the three-day symposium.

The event was organized by Tropical Conservancy, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to protecting and conserving species, habitats, and the environment throughout the world. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) was one of the co-sponsors of the event.

A new Indian government program to bring medicinal plants into the country’s medical and livelihood mainstreams should put money into the pockets of the villagers who collect them, while making the plants safer to use. The effort marks a shift away from viewing India’s forests as timber stock, to seeing them as sources for a medicinal plant industry.

Where Central and South America come together, grows a rainforest that is one of the richest ecological regions of tropical America. The Indigenous peoples who live there depend on this forest for food, medicine, building materials and much more. But parts of the rainforest are being cut by outsiders, the pressure on natural resources is increasing, and the livelihoods of the Indigenous peoples are threatened.

In Uganda, the rural population is as likely to consult a herbalist as a medical practitioner for common complaints. IDRC-supported research is helping healers prepare better, safer, and cheaper remedies.

News

The great majority of Africans routinely use the services of traditional healers for primary health care. Recognizing that traditional medicine is “the most affordable and accessible system of health care for the majority of the African rural population,” the Organization for African Unity (now the African Union) declared 2001-2010 to be the Decade for African Traditional Medicine. It is but one recent initiative to valorize this essential health care system, as participants at the International Symposium on Biodiversity and Health discovered.

Latin America is one of the richest regions of the world in terms of biological diversity. Even Panama, one of the smallest countries in the region, has more than 10 000 plant species, while, to the north Mexico boasts more than 21 000 plant species. This abundance of flora means that the region is a storehouse of medicinal plants and traditional knowledge. How best to conserve, study, and manage that unique resource was discussed at the International Symposium on Biodiversity and Health, held in Ottawa in October 2003.

Researcher Profile

The Karisoke Research Centre, located in Rwanda's Volcano National Park, has long specialized in the study and protection of mountain gorillas. It was there, in 1974, that Léopold Ntezurubanza first became interested in the astonishing properties of medicinal plants. Those early experiences launched him on a mission to preserve Africa’s medicinal plants and to document their use in traditional healing.