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Articles
ISSUES
IN MEDICINAL PLANT TRADE
By Anjana
Mudappa
The
dramatic increase in exports of medicinal plants in the past decade
testifies to the worldwide interest in these products as well
as in traditional health systems. Records over the last 10 years
have shown that Indian exports of medicinal plants have trebled.
But, as these plants are predominantly of wild origin, hundreds
of species are now threatened with extinction because of over-harvesting,
destructive collection techniques, and conversion of habitats
to crop-based agriculture. Open access to medicinal plants in
the wild is perhaps one of the main reasons for the current unsustainable
levels of harvesting.
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full article
TRADE
IN MEDICINAL PLANTS
-The State of our Ignorance
By D K Ved
In
terms of the volume and value of medicinal plants exported, India
ranks second in the world. Data on exports of medicinal plants from
India over the years 1990-91 to 1993-94, consolidated by Agricultural
and Processed Food Products Development Authority of the Ministry
of Commerce lists 21 commodity groups.
Intellectual
property rights
-appropriating biodiversity and
people's knowledge
By Madhav Gadgil, Utkarsh Ghate and
P R Sheshagiri Rao
IPRs are meant to assure rewards to innovators
and are claimed to have been an important driving force behind
the rapid industrial growth in the developed world.
The
Protection of Medicinal Plants in India
By Sangeeta
Udgaonkar
Historically,
all medicinal preparations were derived from plants, whether in
the simple form of plant parts or in the more complex form of
crude extracts, mixtures, etc. Today, a substantial number of
drugs are developed from plants. The majority of these involve
the isolation of the active ingredient (chemical compound) found
in a particular medicinal plant and its subsequent modification.
A semi-synthetic analogue of such a compound could typically be
a useful pharmaceutical product.
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