This volume is a collection of papers by experts in medicinal plants, presented to help clarify the many policy and technical issues associated with the conservation, use, production and trade of medicinal plants. The publication draws attention to the huge contribution of medicinal plants to traditional and modern health care system. It also alerts readers on the many problems and challenges facing their sustainable development. Subjects covered include assessment and management of the medicinal plant resource base; best harvesting and processing practices; trade issues; and intellectual property rights regarding traditional medicines of indigenous peoples. This documents will help raise awareness of medicinal plants as an important forest resource and will help ensure that medicinal plants are adequately included in forest conservation and utilization programmes. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction by G C Bodeker; Part I: General Articles covering Global Issues; Forest based medicines in traditional and cosmopolitan health care by A P Van Seters, Enthnobotanical research and traditional health care in developing countries by M Balick and P A Cox, Between a rock and a hard place: Indigenous peoples, nation states and the multinationals by G Dutfield, Industrial utilisation of medicinal plants in developing countries by T de Silva, Trade in Medicinal Plants by S E Kuipers, Medicinal plant information database by K K S Bhat; Part II: Articles on Regional Aspects of Medicinal Plants Use; Biodiversity-People Interface in Nepal by N Bhattarai, Beyond the Biodiversity convention-the challenges facing the bio-cultural heritage of india s medicinal plants by D Shankar and B Majumdar, A biocultural medicinal plants conservation project in Sri Lanka by L de Alwis, utilisation and conservation of medicinal plants in China with special reference to Atractylides lancea by S-A He and N Sheng, An Africa-wide overview of medicinial plant harvesting, conservation and health care by A B Cunningham, Biodiversity conservation and the application of Amazonian medicinal plants in the control of malaria by W Milliken, Bulgarian model for regulating the trade in plant material for medicinal and other purposes by D Lange and M Mladenova, Phytomedicinal forest harvest in the United States by J A Duke.

This volume brings together a collection of papers by some experts in medicinal plants. It is presented as a contribution to clarifying the many policy and technical issues associated with the conservation, use, production and trade of medicinal plants. This publication draws attention to the huge contribution of medicinal plants to traditional and modern health care systems, but also alert the readers on the many problems and challenges facing their sustainable development, such as: assessment and management of the medicinal plant resource base; best harvesting and processing practices; trade issues and aspects dealing with the intellectual property rights on traditional medicine by indigenous peoples. The use of this document will help raise the awareness on medicinal plants as an important forest resource, and will help ensure that medicinal plants are adequately included in forest conservation and utilization programmes.

This book opens readers' eyes to the enormous resources of the Earth's rain forests and the potential impact of their destruction in terms of human health.

From the beginning of human civilization, people have depended on plants to cure disease, promote healing of injuries, and alleviate pain. In many places that has changed very little. In the West, however, herbal and botanical cures have long been ignored in favor of "scientific medicine." But the benefits of medicinal plants are being rediscovered in many developed countries, where consumers are turning to such therapies in place of, and in addition to, Western medical treatments. And, all over the world, the drive to lower the cost of health care has made herbals and botanicals an attractive alternative to more expensive synthetic remedies. In 1978, the World Health Organization responded to increased interest in medicinal plants by convening a series of international consultations, seminars, and symposia to explore and promote the use of medicinal plants. Medicinal Plants presents the proceedings of the last of these symposia, held in 1993. It brings together an vast range of information and presents an overview of the use of medicinal plants that includes a discussion of a variety of issues—scientific, economic, regulatory, agricultural, cultural—focused on the importance of medicinal plants to primary health care and global health care reform.

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2008 in the subject Forestry / Forestry Economics, Vrije University Brussel (Human Ecology Department), 52 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The role of medicinal plants in traditional health care delivery in Ghana cannot be overemphasized. More than 250 indigenous trees and plants with healing properties have been scientifically catalogued in Ghana. Unfortunately, the very foundation upon which the medicinal plant species and the traditional health care system survive is threatened by deforestation. The rate of deforestation has increased by 50% over the last ten years, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The current area of intact forest is now estimated at between 10.9 and 11.8% of the original cover and 6.9% of the country's total area. Deforestation is changing the habitats of disease-carrying insects and creating conditions that may help to spread malaria, river blindness and other devastating illnesses. Moreover, since the majority of the rural poor in Ghana depends on traditional medicine for their health care needs, the present high rate of deforestation will have a detrimental effect on the heath care delivery system in the country. Important plant species will be lost to deforestation unless urgent measures are taken. This paper examines the impact of deforestation on medicinal plants in Ghana.