Medicinal plants and their role in e economic development A Presentation By Mr Allah Dad Khan Short training Course on "Medicinal and Aromatic Plants , Boon for Enterprise development March 24th to 26th March 2017 at PFI Peshawar

2. Medicinal Plants and their role in
Economic Development
A
Presentation
BY
Mr. Allah Dad Khan
At
PFI
On 25h March 2017

3.  Herbal medicine -- also called botanical
medicine or phytomedicine -- refers to using
a plant's seeds, berries, roots, leaves, bark,
or flowers for medicinal purposes.
 Herbalism has a long tradition of use outside
of conventional medicine.
 It is becoming more main stream as
improvements in analysis and quality control
along with advances in clinical research show
the value of herbal medicine in treating and
preventing disease

4.  The geographical location of Pakistan has
provided an ideal environment for the growth
and nourishment of different medicinal plant
species.
 The country is gifted with diverse vegetation
types occurring in the tropical, sub-tropical
desert, semi-desert, temperate, sub-alpine
and alpine ecosystems.

7.  Pakistan has a diverse climatic condition
supporting the growth of nearly 6000 higher
plant species .
 Of which 700 plant species are reported for
their medicinal value and the number is
increasing constantly due to current interest of
local researchers in natural products.
 Nearly 300 medicinal plants are traded locally
and internationally.
 Pakistan obtains more than 80 per cent of its
medicaments from higher plants

8.  Medicinal plant species is one of the most
important elements of biodiversity that usually
grows in all kind of ecosystems and posses
high pharmaceutical, economic and ecological
values.
 Different parts of medicinal plants are sold in
large quantities both in national and
international markets, indicating its
importance as a source of income for the
inhabitants of Pakistan.

12.  Presently, the total value of medicines
consumed in country both imported and
manufactured by national and multinational
drug companies is more than 100 billion
rupees per year.
 Out of this, 95% raw material is imported.

13.  Majority of the medicinal plants is found in
less developed and far flung parts of the
country like Gilgit Baltistan, FATA and parts of
Baluchistan, KPK and Kashmir.
 Therefore, their proper utilization could not
only contribute to poverty alleviation in these
areas but also could contribute to overall
economic development of country.

14.  Bulks of the wild medicinal plants are
collected by children (47 per cent) and women
(34 per cent) having no background of proper
plant collection which have caused a rapid
threat to some of the economically important
medicinal plants.

15.  Poverty and Lack of Access to Costly
Medicines.
 Lack of Awareness of Herbal medicines
 Quality concern
 lack of standardization
 lack of listing formulae constituents
 Private sector participation isolated
 Policy and Regulatory gaps
 Inadequate Knowledge and actions to make
herbal medicine as a commercial/business
enterprise

16. Medicinal plants are not only a mean of health
care, but make an important contribution to
livelihoods of poor communities all over the
world .World trade in medicinal plants
accounts for about 30 percent of the total drug
market.

17.  The current value of global trade of the
medicinal plant products has been put over
US$ 75 billion per year and is growing at the
rate of 12.5% annually, expecting to reach $5
trillion by 2050
 This percentage excludes plants used for
non-medicinal purposes. Bulk of the raw
material (90%) is produced in developing
countries (Asia, Africa and Latin America)
and 60% is imported/ processed and used in
the developed countries.

18.  Asia represents the greatest volume of
medicinal plants used across regions, both
domestically and for export. The
international trade of medicinal plants is
dominated by only few countries. About 80 %
of the world-wide exports of medicinal
plants are allotted to only 12 countries with
the dominance of China and India as the
world’s leading producing nations

19.  China, which harvests an estimated 80% of its
medicinal plant material from wild sources,
exports an estimated 32,600 tons of
medicinal raw material each year

20.  Demand for a wide variety of MAP species is
increasing with growth in human needs,
numbers and commercial trade. Increasing
the number of medicinal plants species in
cultivation would appear to be an important
strategy for meeting a growing demand

21.  Majority of the people in Pakistan rely on
medicinal plants to find treatment for their
minor, even in some cases major diseases.
Some wild plants are now being commonly
used e.g. Ephedra, Artimisia,

22.  In most instances, certain plant species are
considered specific for a particular illness but
occasionally they have mixed usage.
Alongside the annual import of many
medicinal plants by herbal, cosmetic and food
industries is a positive indicator for cropping
these plants inland in the country.

23.  But unfortunately in Pakistan not enough
emphasis has been given to cultivation of
medicinal Plant, though we are blessed with a
country which has an altitudinal range from 0 -
8611 m, hence having variety of climatic
conditions at a given time.

24.  The organic farming is a basic philosophy for
production of medicinal herbs. Organic
farming methods are based on nature’s
principles of production. Organically produced
medicinal herbs are believed to be living in
harmony with the natural system by
cooperating rather than competing. Most of
the medicinal herb species are collected from
the wild but some of these are also grown
particularly by small farmers to diversify their
cropping system and to earn some additional
income for their sustenance

27.  To develop a balanced health policy to
provide efficient and acceptable health
services, we
 need to understand the diversity of health-
seeking behavior of the population in both
(allelopathy and traditional medicine) health
care system of Pakistan
 The state regulatory authorities have a
crucial role to play in this scenario, in terms
of recognition of herbal medicines, financing
and appreciating training and research in this
field.

28.  A positive interaction between all cadres of
health providers, academicians, policy
makers and researchers has to be harnessed
to work for a common goal to improve the
health of the people
 Integration of alternative medicine with the
mainstream allopathic therapeutics

29.  Now it is the time that government should start
public awareness campaign about importance of
medicinal plants in country economy.
 Special emphasis should be given on
conservation of plant species in the form of herbal
gardens and gene banks.
 According to a study, out of 709 endangered plant
species of the world, nearly 64 species are
endemic to Pakistan.
 The local people should be trained for proper
collection, cultivation, processing and marketing
of medicinal plants.
 The government should provide linkage of
collectors with market and dealers not only at
national level but also at international level.

30.  The farmers need to be guided and provided
information about the types of market that exist
locally and determine whether they may be
suitable to supply.
 Each market might require different types of
distribution and promotion.
 In the rural market, distribution was via
middleman.
 Depending on the area that a farmer wishes to
cover and the number of such sales outlets, it
may be possible to supply them on the basis of
contract with some agency involved in the
business of medicinal herbs/spices.

31.  Since natural compounds are highly value
added possible because of multiple known
reasons products, it is therefore extremely
important to induct new However, different
models for the standardization of modern
techniques in the method of collection and
other phytomedicine is available that need
further polishing processes involved in the
product development in order to prevent
irrelevant wastage of time and expenditures.

32.  The cultivation of medicinal plants is highly
applications recommended for sustainable
development of herbal industry by adopting
modern scientific techniques meet not only
the growing local but also to earn foreign
exchange from the export of plant oriented
various, products.

33.  The perfect coordination of numerous fields
is crucial , in the discovery of
phytomedicine. The identification and
 the collection of plant material from specific
locality is the job ethno botanist.

34.  There is therefore, a need to find ways to
harvest medicinal plants sustainably from the
wild, train local collectors (in proper
collection techniques, train the people in
growing medicinal plants, and remove some
of the middlemen from the trading chain.